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Nobody Listened: Documentary on Human Rights Abuses in Cuba

Fidel Castro is a controversial figure. From the era of Eisenhower to that of George W. Bush, Castro has ruled Cuba and maintained... more

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Nato cools relations with Russia

Nato foreign ministers have said they "cannot continue business as usual" with Russia, and demanded that Moscow pull... more

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Iranian woman sentenced to death again for a crime she denies committing at the age of 13

Soghra Najafpour (31) has been sentenced to death by a court in the city of Rasht (by the Caspian sea) for a crime she has allegedly committed at the age of 13, reported the Iranian daily newspaper Etemaad today.

At the age of nine, Soghra Najafpour was sent by her family to work as a servant in a doctor’s home in the northern city of Rasht. Four years later she was accused of the murder of Amir, the eight-year-old son of the family. Soghra Najafpour reportedly confessed to the murder during interrogation; soon afterwards, however, she denied that she was involved.

Under the trial she had said that the real murder was a man who used to sexually abuse her. One day while the man (who according to unconfirmed sources is Amir’s father) was abusing her, Amir entered the room and witnessed the crime. In an attempt to get rid of him, the man pushed the young boy away, and that is how young Amir hit his head to the wall, fell to the ground, and lost consciousness. The boy was then thrown into a well. She also said that she wasn’t physically capable of carrying Amir and throwing him into the well.

The man didn’t confess to Soghra’s version of the story. But based on Soghra’s confession, the judge sentenced her to 100 lashes for immoral acts!

Nevertheless she was sentenced to death, as the judge did not believe her to be innocent. At the age of 17, Soghra Najafpour was taken to be executed, but the victim’s mother requested the authorities to postpone the execution to a later time.

Since Amir’s family didn’t take further steps to carry out Soghra’s death sentence, Soghra was released from jail on bail in October 2007. After reviewing the materials and evidence in Soghra’s case, Judge Teimori, head of Rasht’s criminal court, approved Soghra’s release on a bail corersponding to $6,000.

When Amir’s parents learned of Soghra’s freedom, they once again requested the court to ensure Soghra’s execution.

She was transferred to the jail few weeks later. On 23 October, the human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh who is defending Soghra, submitted an appeal to the Supreme Court calling for a review of the case of Soghra Najafpour. The Supreme Court decided to send the case to another court for reconsideration.

The court has now once again sentenced Soghra Najafpour to death.

If the sentence is approved by the supreme court, the 31 years old Soghra who has spent 19 years in jail will be facing execution for an alleged crime at the age of 13.

Iran has artified UN’s concention for the rights of the child which bans death penalty for the crimes committed at the age of under 18. However more than 150 minor offenders are on the death row in the Iranian prisons and at least 11 minors have been executed since the beginning of 2007.Soghra Najafpour (31) has been sentenced to death by a court in the city of Rasht (by the Caspian sea) for a crime she has... more

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4 months ago

Three men are sentenced to 74 lashes and amputation of four fingers of their right hand

Three men are sentenced to 74 lashes and amputation of four fingers of the right hand and three years in prison reported the... more

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4 months ago

THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC CONDEMNS A 13 YEAR OLD GIRL TO STONING

Zhila Izadi, a 13 year old girl from the north-western city of Marivan had been condemned to death by stoning after being found that she had been pregnant from her 15 years-old brother. The independent Iranian online newspaper "Peyke Iran" (www.peykeiran.com) that had first revealed the news last week reported on Saturday 16 October 2004 that the girl has given birth two weeks ago in prison, but the young girl had been separated from her new born baby after the birth. The father, a devout Muslim, informed the authorities about the "disgrace" the young girl had caused the family. While Zhila as been sentenced to stoning, her brother, jailed in Tehran, is to receive only 150 lashes, in accordance with Islamic laws.

In the city of Arak, a woman was sentenced to death by stoning. According to the ruling of the religious judge, her husband and two children were forced to attend the execution. The woman urged her husband to take the children away, but to no avail. A truck full of stones was brought in to be used during the stoning. In the middle of the stoning, although her eyes had been gouged out, the victim was able to escape from the ditch and started running away, but the regime's guards recaptured her and shot her to death.

The penalty for adultery, called the Law of Hodoud is flogging (100 lashes of the whip) for unmarried male and female offenders. Married offenders may be punished by stoning regardless of their gender, but the method laid down for a man involves his burial up to his waist, and for a woman up to her neck. The law provides that if a person who is to be stoned manages to escape, he or she will be allowed to go free. Since it is easier for a man to escape, this discrimination literally becomes a matter of life and death.

The Law of Hodoud provides that the stones should not be so large that a person dies after being hit with two of them, nor so small as to be defined as pebbles, but must cause severe injury. This makes it clear that the purpose of stoning is to inflict grievous pain on the victim, in a process leading to his or her slow death.

Inside Iran, stonings are trumpeted with great fanfare, but when it comes to the international arena, officials brazenly deny their methods. In an interview with Le Figaro on September 10, 1994, Rafsanjani was asked, "Are women accused of adultery stoned in Iran?" He replied: "No, no such thing exists in Iran. This has been fabricated to damage us."

In his April 1998 trip to France and Sweden, Ayatollah Mohajerani, the Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance and Khatami's government spokesman, who is regarded to be a moderate figure, discussed several matters. His positions openly contradicted what he says in Iran and the actions of the government. When asked about his views about stoning, Mohajerani refrained from making an unequivocal statement of support for this inhuman practice. Upon returning to Iran, however, he said explicitly that he does not oppose stoning but believes that efforts should be made to stop the dissemination of the news of stoning and filming the scenes.

The regime's authorities usually force the victim's family members, including children, to watch the stoning to death of their loved one, and in some instances, when the woman miraculously managed to escape, contrary to the regime's own law, she was recaptured and either stoned again or killed on the spot.

The fact that women can be gruesomely stoned to death for 'moral corruption' when the mullahs are prepared to sign men up for 10 minute pleasure marriages with young girls, courtesy of the theocracy, confirms the male chauvinist basis of the entire system.Zhila Izadi, a 13 year old girl from the north-western city of Marivan had been condemned to death by stoning after being found... more