While the world fusses over another American execution, Iran has publicly hanged a 17-year-old boy for stabbing to death their “strongest man”. The boy begged for forgiveness and professed he had done it in self-defence, but not even an 11th-hour plea by Amnesty International for a stay of execution could stop it.

The boy, named Alireza Molla-Soltani, was publicly hanged in front of a large crowd that gathered to witness the event at the scene of the crime in the city of Karaj, west of the capital Tehran.

He was sentenced in July to be hanged for the stabbing to death of the popular athlete, Ruhollah Dadashi, dubbed “Iran’s strongest man”.

Amnesty International said that the teenager claimed at his trial that he and two other youths had a confrontation with Dadashi after a driving dispute, and he had stabbed him in self-defence.

Amnesty’s deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa, Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, spoke from London:

Executing juvenile offenders is strictly forbidden under international treaties that Iran has signed up to.

Of course, there are always two sides to a story, and under the law of the Islamic lunar calendar, which spokesman for the prosecution, Ali Ramezanmanesh, is sticking to, the boy had reached “religious maturity” and was over 18 years of age.

He explained this to the Fars news agency:

The law views religious maturity as its criterion which is calculated according to the lunar calendar, therefore the convict is over 18 and there are no legal impediments.

Consisting of 354 days a in a year, the Islamic lunar calendar is 11 days shorter than the solar calendar.

The AFP kindly totaled the number of executions reported in Iran so far this year, based on media and official reports, at 202. They’re up there with the likes of China, Saudi Arabia and the United States for highest numbers of executions each year.

Some of the crimes punishable by death in Iran include murder, rape, armed robbery, drug trafficking and adultery.

[Source: DailyMail]