IRANIAN FACES HANGING FOR MURDER COMMITTED AS MINOR

August 19, 2008: Kargozaran newspaper said that Iran’s judiciary has approved the death sentence for a young man who committed murder as a minor. The youth, identified as Amir, “unintentionally stabbed a young man to death in a childish fight when he was 16, in November 2005,” the report said, adding his execution was expected to take place within days. A court in the southern city of Shiraz sentenced Amir to death and the verdict has been approved by the office of Iran’s judiciary chief, Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi, it added. (Sources: Daily Times, 20/08/2008)