According to an Sarmayeh, an Iranian newspaper, Nasrin Sotoudeh, the attorney of Sina Paymard today stated that the additional apx. $90,000 blood money demanded by the family of the alleged victim was raised and after necessary paperwork, Sina Paymard is expected to be freed.

Family of the alleged victim had requested approximately $160,000. Sina’s father had raised the initial $80,000 .  “I have sold everything we own” he said. Remainder of the blood money was paid by Dr. Rasul Ganji, an Iranian university professor. 

Under Iran’s Islamic Ghisas law, anybody who kills another person has to pay compensation to the victim’s family who can refuse it and demand the murderer to be executed.  The official blood money, cash paid out in the case of violent death, is set at 350 mln rials (37,600 dollars) for a man, and half that for a woman.

Nasrin Sotoudeh said: ” I am proud, In addition Dr. Ganji, other funds were contributed by human rights activists and Iranians.” . Iranian “Judiciary should not leave the decision about childrens lives to the families of the alleged victims, this is a violation of justice”. She added. 

Mrs. Sotoudeh will will start the adminstrative process to finalize the case towards Sina’s freedom on Saturday which is the first Iranian business weekday.

In an email to Stop Child Executions Campaign, Mrs. Nasrin Sotoudeh, the attorney of Sina Paymard, the Iranian teenager who was scheduled to be executed today, wrote: “The family of the alleged victim have given 10 days, however they keep insisting that Sina must be executed. The family said that whether or not  we pay the (blood) money, they will get Sina executed.”

In a report today, the Iranian Etemaad newspaper also wrote: “Although the young flute player, Sina Paymard was scheduled to be taken to the execution pole for the second time, the head of judiciary one more time ordered the execution to be delayed.”

According to the newspaper Sina’s file could possibly be transferred to a mediation council for resolution. Sina was being executed because his family were not financially capable of raising nearly $150,000 which was demanded by the alleged victims family. Sina Paymard who is now 19 years old is accused of murder at the age of 16. Last year after  Sina reached the age of 18 he was sent for execution for the first time when the alleged victims family asked for delay of execution after hearing Sina playing flute as his last wish at the execution pole.

Meanwhile Sina’s father was able to only raise $80,000 of the $150,000 which was demanded by alleged victim’s family.  Sina’s father had asked to pay the difference in installments which was not accepted by the family and therefore Sina was sent for execution the second time yesterday but in the last minutes he was given an additional week to raise the DIYEH ( Blood money)

 According to Islamic Regime of Iran’s Sharia laws , family of a victim can ask for Blood money as a substitute for Ghisas (executions).

Stop Child Execution Campaign categorically condemns the barbaric concept of blood money which puts a monetary value on human lives . Additionally such laws would favor the rich while condemns the poor to death since they are incapable of raising the BLOOD MONEY. Concept of allowing the families of an alleged victim to chose and negotiate the life and death of an accused with money (GHISAS) is against all international and humane standards of justice.

Sina Paymard was under the age of 18 at the time of alleged crime therefore according to UN conventions of ICCPR AND CRC he should not be executed nor sentenced to life imprisonment.

نوازنده ني بار ديگر از مرگ گريخت

گروه حوادث؛ در حالي که قرار بود سينا پايمرد نوجوان نوازنده ني صبح امروز براي دومين بار پاي چوبه دار برود رئيس قوه قضائيه دستور داد تا بار ديگر حکم اعدام اين محکوم به قصاص به تعويق بيفتد. به گزارش خبرنگار ما در آخرين ساعات روز گذشته يک منبع موثق اعلام کرد با توجه به اينکه اين نوجوان مي تواند با پرداخت ديه از اعدام نجات پيدا کند حکم وي که قرار بود امروز اجرا شود براي يک هفته ديگر متوقف شد. اين منبع موثق اعلام کرد، احتمال دارد پرونده سينا براي حل اختلاف و گرفتن رضايت از اولياي دم به شوراي حل اختلاف فرستاده شود. سينا در حالي از مرگ فاصله گرفت که سه محکوم به مرگ ديگر صبح امروز در محوطه زندان اوين پاي چوبه دار مي روند. نجات دوباره از مرگ سينا قرار بود صبح امروز به اين دليل پاي چوبه دار برود که خانواده او نتوانستند 150 ميليون تومان پولي را که اولياي دم براي گذشت از قصاص وي خواسته بودند تهيه کنند.سينا پايمرد که هم اکنون 19 سال دارد، در سال 83 پسر جواني را با ضربه چاقو به قتل رساند. وي که نوازنده ني است در جلسه محاکمه از اولياي دم تقاضاي بخشش کرد و گفت که از کرده اش پشيمان است. سينا گفت؛ درگيري من و مقتول به خاطر خريد حشيش بود، من براي تهيه حشيش به پارک رفته بودم که بين ما درگيري به وجود آمد و من با چاقو او را زدم. من از مشکلات شديد روحي رنج مي بردم. حالا که مدت ها است در زندان هستم به کلي تغيير کردم و مي خواهم زندگي سالمي را آغاز کنم. به رغم خواهش سينا اولياي دم حاضر به گذشت نشدند و پرونده وي با حکم قصاص پس از طي مراحل قانوني به دايره اجراي احکام دادسراي جنايي فرستاده شد. سال گذشته با توجه به اينکه سينا به سن 18 سالگي رسيده بود نام وي در ليست اعدامي ها قرار گرفت و او پاي چوبه دار رفت اما دقايقي پيش از اجراي حکم سينا به عنوان آخرين تقاضاي خود از مسوولان خواست به او اجازه بدهند ني بنوازد. ناله هاي ني سينا باعث شد تا اولياي دم تحت تاثير قرار بگيرند و اعلام کنند 2 ماه فرصت مي دهند تا خانواده وي 150 ميليون تومان به آنان بپردازند تا از اجراي حکم قصاص صرف نظر کنند. اين در حالي بود که ناله هاي ني سينا يک محکوم به مرگ ديگر را نيز نجات داد و اولياي دم در خصوص او هم اعلام رضايت کردند. در اين مدت پدر سينا موفق شد 80 ميليون تومان پول تهيه کند، اما برادران مقتول که از سوي پدر و مادرشان براي پيگيري پرونده وکالت دارند، حاضر به پذيرفتن اين مبلغ نشدند و تمام 150 ميليون تومان را خواستند و پيشنهاد پدر سينا براي اينکه مابقي پول را در قالب چند چک بپردازد نيز از سوي برادران مقتول رد شد و آنها با مراجعه به دايره اجراي احکام تقاضاي قصاص سينا را مطرح کردند و به اين ترتيب نام سينا در فهرست اعداميان امروز جاي گرفت اما در آخرين ساعات روز گذشته توانست مهلت يک هفته يي براي پرداخت ديه بگيرد.

TEHRAN, July 18, 2007 (AFP) – Iran has halted the execution of a teenager who murdered a drug dealer when he was 16, giving his family 10 days to reach a settlement with the victim’s kin, his lawyer said Thursday.
 Sina Paymard, 19, was going to be hanged at dawn on Wednesday for murdering a 32-year-old man in a fight over drugs three years ago.
 ”(Judiciary chief) Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi halted the execution for 10 days so that we can reach a settlement with the victim’s family,” Paymard’s lawyer Nasrin Sotudeh told AFP.
 She said the family had to come up with the hefty sum of 1.5 billion rials (161,300 dollars) in blood money — compensation asked by the victim’s family — in order to save the boy from the gallows.
 ”They have raised half the blood money and some people have promised to make up for the rest,” Sotudeh said, without specifying who the donors were.
 The official blood money, cash paid out in the case of violent death, is set at 350 million rials (37,600 dollars) for a man, and half that for a woman.
 Under Iran’s Islamic law, anybody who kills another person has to pay compensation to the victim’s family who can refuse it and demand the murderer be executed.
 Paymard was to be hanged in September 2006, two weeks after he turned 18. But he asked as his last wish, to play his Iranian flute (ney) before the executioners put the rope round his neck. Touched by his playing, the victim’s family agreed to demand financial compensation instead of his death.
 Iran’s conservative judiciary maintains that minors are not executed in the Islamic republic, but in some cases murderers have been hanged after reaching the age of 18.
 In April, a man identified only as Mohammad was reportedly hanged in the southern city of Shiraz for murdering his friend when he was 16 years old.
 A human rights group headed by Iranian Nobel peace laureate Shirin Ebadi said in a recent report that 15 people were sentenced to death in Iran in the past two years for crimes they committed as minors.

Sina suffered from mental disorder. Like many hopeless Iranian youth , he was also addicted to drugs. According to United nations statistics, Islamic Republic of Iran has the highest proportion of opiate addicts in the world — 2.8 percent of the population over age 15 and that does not include all other forms drugs that have been made accesible to Iranian youth who represent majority of Iranian population. A 10 billion dollar market which amounts to three quarters of the total revenue from Iran’s oil market during the same period. Sina was simply another byproducts of the a society that the Iranian Mullahs have created.

That day in 2004, Sina went to the park that to buy drugs where a fight broke out between him and the drug dealer. 16 year old Sina stabbed the man……

Later Sina Paymand was convicted of murder and sentenced to death.  Last year the Supreme Court of Islamic regime in Iran upheld the death sentence . He was then scheduled to be hanged on 20 September 2006, two weeks after his 18th birthday. Many human right activists and organization including Nazanin Afshin-Jam at the time objected to the execution of Sina.

September 20th, was the first day of fall and the first day of school for Iranian children but this year was different for Sina. It was not the voice of his parents that woke him up to go to school but it was the voice of prison guards.

 ”Wake up, today is the day.” Sina heard.

After he was prepared, he was taken to the execution pole. The prison Mullah read parts of Koran to him. The verse started with a sentence: “In the name of God, the most merciful, the most compassionate”. The verses were echoing in Sina’s head. How could the government appointed Mullah believe in those words if they were walking him to his death?! 

“Do you have any final wish?” said the executioner as he put the noose around Sina’s neck.

“Yes” replied Sina . ”I’d like to play my flute one last time”

Sina waited until a prison official of Tehran ‘s Rajai-Shar prison brought the flute from his cell.  As he was blowing into the flute playing his favorite song, Sina could almost feel his last breaths.

As Sina neared the end of his favorite melody, silence fell across the prison yard as if everyone knew the end of Sina‘ song was also a signal to the end of his 18 year young life.

The executioner put the rope around Sina’s neck again. He heard someone shout, “STOP!” 

Executioner turned to the voice. It was one of family members of the murdered man who were there to observe the execution. “Don’t kill him, we will ask for blood money”!

According to Sharia laws of Iran , the family of the victim can decide about the life or death of the accused and in return ask for blood money retribution.

Last month Sina was ordered to pay $150,000 to the family of the deceased but his father was only able to gather $70,000.  

Yesterday in a desperate plea to Nazanin Afshin-Jam, Sina’s attorney, Mrs. Nasrin Sotoudeh said:  “We have no more legal remedies to stop the execution of Sina Paymand, it can happen anytime. His father could not come up with the money” 

Last month the Iranian government executed a minor and Sina could be next. Please help save Sina’s life. As his attorney told Stop Child Execution Campaign, “You are Sina’s last hope.”