According to Etemaad newspaper, a 17 year old boy – Kamal (last name unknown) - has voluntarily turned himself to police and confessed to the murder of a 25 year man.

According to Kamal, who worked at a barber shop, the 25 year old Shahin who entered the store did not seem to be in a normal state and after few minutes he started a fight with the owner of the barber shop, however after some mediations Shahin left the store.

“We thought the incident was over but after a few minutes Shahin returned and attacked the store again . This time he had a knife with him and our attempt to stop him was not successful. Eventually I got angry about this and got involved in the fight. I don’t know who handed me a knife but by now I had lost control and by the time I came to myself , the young man was on the floor and in a bad shape. I was frightened and ran away “ Kamal said. 

“During the time that I was hiding I kept wishing that nothing had happened to Shahin but eventually I was told that he had died. My conscious bothered me a lot , so I decided the best thing to do is to turn myself in,“ he added.

The case is now under further investigation.

Stop Child Execution Campaign reminds Iran’s Judiciary of Iran’s obligation under the United Nation’s Article 37(a) of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) which provides that: “Neither capital punishment nor life imprisonment without possibility of release shall be imposed for offences committed by persons below eighteen years of age”.

In our efforts to stop child executions SCE campaign has initiated a proactive role in following the cases of those minors who may be facing a potential death penalty. Such preventive measure can lead to stopping the execution verdicts before they are issued. The SCE campaign is relaying this case to human rights attorney’s in Iran for close monitoring and follow up. On March 17, 2007 SCE reported another case of the 16 year old Faramarz who is awaiting verdict.