14 October 2008   AI Index: MDE 13/151/2008           

Juvenile offender Mohammad Reza Haddadi, who was scheduled to be executed on 9 October, has had his execution postponed. The spokesperson of the judiciary told the press at his weekly press conference on 7 October that Haddadi’s death sentence had been confirmed, but his execution had been halted. He did not give a new execution date.

Iman Hashemi was pardoned in September by the family of the man he was convicted of killing, and is now free.

Mohammad Reza Haddadi is held in Adelabad prison in the city of
Shiraz. He was sentenced to death in January 2004 for a murder committed in 2003, when he was 15. He had confessed to the murder, but retracted the confession during his trial, saying he had claimed responsibility for the killing only because his two co-defendants had offered to give his family money if he did so. He said during the trial that he had not taken part in the murder. His co-defendants later supported Mohammad Reza Haddadi’s claims of innocence, and withdrew their testimony that had implicated him in the murder. They were both over 18 at the time of the crime and received prison sentences.

There is no further news on Naser Qasemi, who was sentenced to death for a crime committed when he was 15.

Further Information on UA 71/08 (MDE 13/049/2008, 13 March 2008) and follow-up (MDE 13/120/2008, 19 August 2008) – Fear of execution