17-Year-Old Minor Executed in Iran

Human rights organizations Hengaw and Iran Human Rights (IHR) based in Norway, along with the Persian-language satellite channel Iran International, have reported on the execution of a 17-year-old boy found guilty of murder in Iran.

According to human rights defenders, Hamidras Asari was executed on November 24, 2023, in a prison located in Sabzevar, Razavi Khorasan province, eastern Iran. The organizations, citing documents they have seen, assert that the teenager was 16 at the time of the crime and 17 at the time of execution. The case purportedly states that Asari 'killed a man during a fight.'

Human rights advocates have once again emphasized that Iran is violating the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which defines a 'child' as any individual under 18 years of age. IHR has highlighted that Iran is one of the few countries in the world where minors can be sentenced to death. Overall, more young people are executed there than in any other country, with Iranian authorities reportedly having executed at least 68 minors since 2010, according to human rights groups.

Political prisoner and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi has appealed to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to immediately halt the execution of children in Iran. 'I am astonished by the world's reaction to the killings and executions of representatives of the Iranian people,' the activist writes, calling the executions a 'shameful source' of the Islamic Republic’s 'repressive authoritarian' regime.