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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Iranian teenager escapes execution |
| 2007-11-06 |
| An Iranian teenager sentenced to death for killing a drug dealer when he was 16 has escaped execution after the parents of the victim accepted 1.5 billion rials ($160,000) in “blood money,” his lawyer said on Monday. But in another case that has put the spotlight on the Islamic Republic’s human rights record, lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh said a higher court had upheld a sentence of two and a half years in jail and 10 lashes for a women’s rights activist. Sotoudeh is representing both Sina Paymard, a musician who was initially scheduled to be put to death last year, and Delaram Ali, who was convicted in July for attending a banned rally in favour of female rights. Ali, 24, was accused of participating in an illegal gathering, propaganda activities against the system, and disrupting public order during a demonstration in Tehran in June 2006 at which scores of people were detained. “The superior court confirmed the verdict,” Sotoudeh told Reuters. “I think they (the judiciary) want to execute this verdict as soon as they can.” By sentencing her to lashes, she said the authorities wanted to tell Ali “you are not important ... you are a small person.” Paymard, now either 18 or 19, was arrested in 2004 for stabbing a drug dealer in a Tehran park but his death sentence was postponed twice, giving the family more time to find compensation money. The victim’s family first declined to accept the sum in compensation, which would allow the sentence to be commuted, and demanded the execution go ahead. But Sotoudeh said they had now changed their minds and on Sunday went to court: “They took the blood money ... Sina will not be executed.” |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #1 The Dark Ages represented by "the left". |
| Posted by: Excalibur 2007-11-06 10:16 |