A judiciary official said in October that teenagers guilty of capital crimes would not face execution unless the crime was murder. In that case, under Sharia, a victim’s family could demand death as retribution or agree to commute the sentence. But death sentences have continued to be imposed on young offenders convicted of murder, rape or drug smuggling, in direct contravention of the international Treaty on Civil and Political Rights, Ebadi said. In Iran, men are deemed adults at 15, girls at age nine.
