Hossein Alipour, born on June 28, 1989, is being held in Lakan Prison
in the city of Rasht for a murder he committed when he was 16 years
old. Once Hossein’s sentencing is confirmed, he will be put to death.
Around
dusk on September 10, 2005, Mr. Alipour, accompanied by one of his
friends, Mehdi Asadi, got into a brawl with another individual
identified as Masoud Parvaneh in which Mr. Parvaneh died tragically.
Hossein Alipour is sentenced to death and Mehdi Asadi received a
ten-year jail term. Many attempts by their court appointed lawyers
have not made any dent on the initial court ruling, and at the present
time, the case has been sent to a higher court for confirmation.
According
to article 37 in Convention on the Rights of Children, execution and
long-term sentencing against individuals under 18 years of age is
considered a violation. In the meantime, according to section 6 of
article 5 in the International Convent on Civil and Political Rights,
issuing death sentences against children has been strictly forbidden.
In spite of such important rulings, Iran has one of the highest child
execution rates in the world.
