Iran asked to stop executing child offenders

BEIRUT: Human Rights Watch on Wednesday called for Iran to stop executing child offenders after three people were put to death in January for crimes they committed as minors.

"Iran should immediately and unconditionally end the use of the death penalty for crimes committed by children under age 18, and move toward a complete ban on capital punishment," the New York-based rights group said in a statement.

It detailed the executions of the three detainees -- Amirhossein Pourjafar, Ali Kazemi and Mahboubeh Mofidi -- last month. Pourjafar, 18, was executed on January 4 in Karaj prison close to Tehran for the rape and murder of a three-year-old girl when he was 16.

Kazemi was put to death on January 30, seven years after he allegedly fatally stabbed a man dead in a street fight aged 15. On the same day the authorities also executed Mofidi, 20, over the murder of her husband at the age of 17, some four years after they were married. The reports of the executions came after Iran appeared to seek a reduction in executions by easing drug laws, effectively taking thousands of people off death row.