DUBAI: The Iranian government went through with the public hanging of a minor convicted of murdering the country's “strongest man” on Wednesday, despite international condemnation of the move. He was hanged in the city of Karaj, west of the capital Tehran. Local reports said a large crowd gathered to watch the hanging, with the country's official IRNA news agency reporting large security presence was also apparent “to ensure the sentence was carried out without any glitches.” Alireza Molla-Soltani had been convicted last month of killing Iran's popular athlete Ruhollah Dadashi in mid-July. The 17-year-old boy said he had used violence in self-defense after an alleged driving dispute led to a confrontation between him and Dadashi, according to Amnesty International, the London-based rights group who publicly called for a stay of the execution. A spokesman for the prosecution, Ali Ramezanmanesh said the boy had reached “religious maturity” and was over 18 years of age. “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” in the way of the hanging, he told Fars news agency. The Islamic lunar calendar is some 11 days shorter than the solar calendar, with 354 days a year. “Executing juvenile offenders is strictly forbidden under international treaties that Iran has signed up to,” said London-based Amnesty's deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa, Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui. According to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, international treaties to which Iran is a state party, sentencing someone under the age of 18 at the time of their offence to death is unlawful. Iran is one of the very few countries still to execute juvenile offenders. Two were executed in the southern port of Bandar Abbas in April this year. Amnesty International also received reports that a third, 16-year-old Hashem Hamidi, was executed near Hamidiya, Khuzestan province in April. The authorities did not announce his execution. BM
