Reza Alinejad could soon be the 7th minor to be executed this year in Iran
Translated from Persian to English on Reza Alinejad’s lawyer Mohammad Mostafaei’s article http://www.mostafaei.blogfa.com/post-85.aspx
Reza Alinejad was no more than 17 years old when he defended himself and his friend Hadi Abedini in fight with two other boys that landed him in prison for the last six years in Adel Abad in Shiraz, Iran.
He is now 21 years old.
Esmail Dooroodi
With the permission of the Head of Judiciary Ayatollah Shahroudi, he may soon join the ranks of
Bahman Saliminian, Rahim Ahmadi, Amir Amrollahi, Mohammad Reza Haddadi, Behnoud Shojaei and Mohammad Fadaei, as the 7th juvenile to be executed this year.
At 8:30 pm 5/10/ 1381(Persian Calendar) Reza Alinejad and his friend Hadi Abedini were on the sidewalk of Emamzadeh Hassan busy eating when they were reproached by two men Esmail Dooroodi and Mohammad Firouzi.
Insults were exchanged which triggered a fight.
The two men were concealing Nunchucks (martial arts tool) under their clothes and tried to hit Alinejad and his friend.
Alinejad defended himself with a knife in one hand while protecting his face with the other hand. Without intending to kill Dooroodi, his knife cut his neck which ended up being fatal.
A lot of Investigation was done to reveal the facts.
1) It was revealed in Firouzi’s testimony that the fight was started by the deceased who attacked Alinejad and Abedini with nunchucks. Reza had no other recourse but to defend himself and his friend. The two men hand surrounded Alinejad and Abedini. Alinejad was injured with a blow to the head by the nunchucks
2) Mr. Gholam Hossein-Chehrenegar who was a witness attested to the fact that there is no doubt that Reza Alinejad did not intentionally kill the man. Rather it was because of self defence that the other man was killed.
3) These testimonies reveal that this was in fact self defence and the fact that the accused had to intention of killing anyone. Despite Alinejad being only 17 years old when this incidence happened, Court #6 in the city of Fasa convicted him on charges of murder.
The lawyer asked for a retrial and the file was sent to the court of appeal in the same city.
The judges said :
“There was no animosity between the fighting parties prior to this incident. The initiator of the fight was the deceased and his friend Abedini who used nunchucks to attack Reza Alinejad and his friend and ended up injuring Alinejad’s forehead. It was a very dangerous piece of equipment that was used. Reza Alinejad claims that he defended himself by throwing a kitchen knife and accidentally stroked the neck of the deceased which caused his death. Therefore because Reza Alinejad defended and ended up killing a man, it is right for him to be executed”.
This above verdict was cancelled and the file was sent anew to a different branch for further investigation.
4) The file was sent to branch 101 of criminal court in Fasa city. This branch concluded that because the accused could have run away from the scene, they reaffirmed the execution once again.
This goes against the earlier witness’ testimony that Reza Alinejad and Hadi Abedini could have not fled the scene as they had been surrounded.
In any case, based on Reza Alinejad’s protest that he is innocent, the file was sent to the Supreme Court. Without taking into consideration the facts in the file, the judges issued the verdict of execution once again for Reza Alinejad.
After the death sentence verdict, the file was sent in order for the execution to be carried out.
According to article 205 of the Penal code in Iran, it is required for the execution order to be approved by the Head of Judiciary. A few days ago the Judiciary Head approved Reza Alinejad’s execution which has put him in an imminent situation to be executed. If the Head of Judiciary does not stop this execution due to the facts aforementioned, or if the family of the victim does not give their pardon, Reza will soon be sent to be executed. Iran has the highest number of executions for those under the age of 18.