IRAN. KURDISH BOY EXECUTED

June 10, 2008: A Kurdish boy, believed to be 16 or 17 years old at the time of execution, was executed in Iran. Mohammad Hassanzadeh was hanged in Sanandaj prison following his conviction for the murder, when aged about 15, of another boy, then aged 10.
A 60-year-old man, Rahim Pashabadi, also convicted of murder, was executed alongside him. Concerning to Hassanzadeh’s case, the Kargozaran newspaper said Iran's judiciary chief Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi had advised the local court to "settle the issue through reconciliation".
"None of our efforts to reach an agreement with the victim's family was successful and therefore the sentence was carried out," an unnamed judicial official was quoted as saying. Under Islamic law, a victim's relatives can spare a murderer from execution by accepting blood money. (Sources: AI, BBC, 11/06/2008)