16 February 2022 :
Juvenile offender Mohammadreza Hadadi’s conviction has been overturned following a judicial review Hadadi’s conviction has been overturned following a judicial review.
According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, the murder conviction of juvenile offender Mohammadreza Hadadi (Mohammad-Reza Haddadi), who is on death row in Shiraz Central Prison, has been overturned by the Supreme Court following a judicial review according to Article 477 of the Criminal Procedure Code.
Iran Human Rights first reported on his case in 2008, when Mohammadreza was 20 years old. In August 2020, his lawyer, Hossein Ahmadi-Niaz told IHR that his client’s death sentence was “under review by the Supreme Court according to Article 474 of the Criminal Procedure Code. On the other hand, based on Article 477 of the abovementioned law and citing the principle of dar (in Sharia law, the sentence should not be carried out when there is a degree of doubt as to defendant’s guilt in offences mandated by God, ie. had/hodood), the Fars province judiciary are now investigating whether the sentence is in breach of Sharia law.”
The Supreme Court has now overturned Mohammadreza’s qisas conviction following a judicial review according to Article 477. According to HRANA, the news agency of Human Rights Activists, quoting Deutsche Welle Persian, the Supreme Court’s verdict statement clarifies that due to the passage of time, forensic medicine is not able to assess if the defendant was rational and mature at the time of the crime. Moreover, the Supreme Court states that two other defendants have refuted their earlier statements and the Judges also doubted the intentionality of the homicide. Therefore, the verdict was reduced to paying a full Diyah (blood money).
Mohammadreza Haddadi was born on 17 March 1988 and was 15 years old when he was arrested in 2002 on charges of committing murder while stealing a car. Hadadi had initially pleaded guilty but later explained that his two co-defendants had coerced him by promising him money to take the rap for the murder telling him that he would not receive the death penalty as he was underage.
The forensic doctors confirmed that he had not reached full intellectual maturity at the time of his arrest according to Article 91 of the IPC. However, two of the three judges in his case found him to be guilty based on elme-qazi (judge’s knowledge). His relatives previously told Iran Human Rights that he has contracted various diseases throughout the years in prison that have remained untreated.
Death sentence of Mohammad Reza Haddadi, a child offender, cancelled (javanehha.com)
Juvenile Offender's Death Sentence Revoked After 18 Years In Prison - Hrana (en-hrana.org)
