Another Iranian Child sentenced to death

This week another Iranian child was sentenced to death in Tehran. 16 year old Khosrow is accused of killing his 20 year old roommate (Amin) last summer.

While on the stand, Khosrow stated that due to financial difficulties he moved to Tehran to find a job. “Because I could not afford to rent an apartment, I rented an apartment with 15  roommates in the (Tehran suburb of) Varamin. At the night of incident while I was cooking, Amin and his friends objected to my cooking while they were using drugs. The issue ended after some arguments. Later at night while I was setting up the beds in the back yard Amin came and said: “I decide where you sleep because I am older than you” and we got in to an argument again and he spilled the his hot tea on me and then attacked me with a break and I went to the room and took a knife and hit him in the stomach and he fell. We then took him to hospital and even paid for his treatment. The next day I went back to my city and my family told me that Amin had died and that is why the next day I voluntarily turned myself to the police department.”
After Khosrows testimony, both the district attorney and the family of the alleged victim asked the court for a death penalty which was granted by the 4 judges of 74th district of Tehran’s penal court. The judges residing were: Koohkamari, Tardast, Salari and Soleymani. Some of these judges are known to have previously issued execution verdicts for other child offenders.