Iran to hang woman for alleged crime committed as juvenile
Delara Darabi is 22 years old and has been on Iran’s death row for almost six years. In 2003, she confessed to killing someone to protect her boyfriend, who was 19 at the time and told her she would not face the death penalty because she was under 18. She has since retracted her confession.
The Iranian Supreme Court has upheld her conviction and sentence. She is scheduled to be publicly hanged tomorrow.
Darabi will be executed by April 20 unless the family of the elderly woman she was convicted of murdering at the age of 17 decides to pardon her.
The case has alarmed human rights activists, and put the spotlight on Iran, one of the few countries that executes people for crimes committed as juveniles.
Along with her 19-year-old boyfriend, Amir Hossein Sotoudeh, Darabi allegedly burgled the home of an elderly female relative — the cousin of Darabi’s father — and the woman was stabbed to death in the process.
Iran is a signatory to two international agreements that reject capital punishment for crimes committed by minors.
The latest word from DelaraDarabi on Twitter is that the victim’s family has refused to pardon her and insists she must hang.
Click here to sign a petition calling on Iranian leaders to commute Delara’s sentence. For more information, visit SaveDelara.com.
[...] IRAN TO HANG woman for alleged crime committed as juvenile …. [...]