After Behnood’s death, the time has come
for three other youngsters to go to the gallows. All three were charged
for crimes they had committed when they were minors (under the age of
18). The alleged charge was premeditated murder. Safar Angooti will go
to the gallows on…October 21st According to some reports, Mohammad Reza
Haddadi and Amir Amrollahi will also be hanged next week. The
considerable efforts to get the victims’ families’ consent to stop the
executions have regrettably been unsuccessful. Additionally, there are
5 other youth whose death sentences could be carried out at any moment.
Some of the victims’ families have agreed to give up their right for
retribution in return for financial compensation, but my clients’
families are not in a position to come up with monetary compensation. I
would like to warn that some individuals and organizations have been
collecting funds under my name. If there is any need to collect funds
to compensate the victims’ families, I will announce it publicly
through this weblog, and all the funds that are received will be legal.
I would urge everyone who wants to contribute to be in direct contact
with myself.
Safar Angooti, Date of Birth September 20th 1989, 17 years old at the time of the crime
Following his arrest, Safar described the incident as follows:
“My
friends Mohammad, Mostafa, Cyrus, Esmail, and I were taking a stroll on
Taleghani Street between 7:30 pm to 8:00 pm. After hanging around for a
few minutes, one of my friends suggested that we go to Negarestan
Street. When we arrived at the end of the alley, we saw two people
standing there. One of them, the victim (Mehdi), was talking to
Fatemeh, the girl I loved. The other one, named Moshtaba, was a friend
of the victim. As soon as Fatemeh saw me, she hid and then left the
area. Mehdi walked towards me and asked me what I wanted, to which I
replied that I had just come to say hello. He told me to get on his
motorcycle, as he wanted to take me somewhere. I was not afraid, so I
got on. After a short distance, he stopped the bike. He looked drunk.
He told me I had a lot of nerve, and then he insulted me. We then got
into a fight. My friends separated us. I was very afraid, so I walked
home and took a knife, which I then put in my belt. I left my house and
walked towards a friend’s house. As I was walking, I heard the sound of
an approaching motorcycle behind me. When I turned around, I saw that
Mehdi was speeding towards me. In my fright, I pulled out the knife,
without intending to stab him. I told him to stop and asked him what he
wanted of me, but he did not stop and continued towards me. I don’t
know what happened and didn’t realize that the knife had struck him,
but, in my bad luck, the knife had caught his collar and made him lose
his balance. Mehdi, having lost control of the bike, collided with a
nearby parked van, causing the blade of the knife to penetrate his
neck. I did not know what to do, so I fled the scene of the accident. I
ran into an abandoned dump and stayed there until midnight. After that
I went to Fatemeh’s house and told her father that I had stabbed
someone because of his daughter. He told me to flee. I went to Saderat
Street, where I saw a group of my friends and got some money from them.
From there I went to the city of Ghom, where I went into the shrine of
Masoumeh. My conscience was killing me, so, after talking to God, I
decided to give myself in. I returned home and went to the police
precinct with my father, where I surrendered myself.”
On April 3rd,
2007, at 9 pm, the emergency unit of the Karaj Police received a phone
call reporting a fight in Behasht Street, which is located in the
Nazar-Abad neighborhood of the Hashtgerd municipality. According to the
report, a male named Mehdi Rezai had been wounded in his neck. A day
later, Safar Angouti, after being on the run, declared to the Police
that he had stabbed Mehdi during a fight. He claimed that, because of
his own negligence, his knife had hit Mehdi’s neck. Following Mehdi’s
collision with a nearby parked car, the knife had then penetrated his
neck.
Safar said that his love for the 14 year old Fatemeh was his
motive. He claimed that he engaged the victim on the day of the crime
because he saw him speaking to the girl he loved. Fatemeh was 14 years
old, and Safar had fallen in love with her after seeing her a few times.
Regrettably,
the fate of these two young men was changed because of a childish fight
which resulted in death for one of them and imprisonment for the other.
The honorable judges of the 71st District of the Tehran criminal court,
Messier Aziz-Mohammadi, Hosseini, Soleimani-Nia and Salari, however,
did not take 3 major factors into consideration in their final ruling:
1 - the absence of premeditation 2 - Safar’s age at the time of the
crime, and, finally, 3 - Mehdi’s collision with the parked van that
resulted in his death. Therefore, my client was found guilty of murder
and sentenced to death (a life for a life), but he should have been
tried for manslaughter. The ruling was sent to the 10th District of the
Supreme Court after an appeal was filed in relation to the three
aforementioned points. In a judgment that consisted of three sentences,
the presiding judges Messier Sahebolzamani and Majdi confirmed the
verdict and sent the file to the enforcement branch. As of today, and
against all legal norms, the head of the Judiciary has endorsed the
ruling. Per his order, Safar Angouti will have the same fate as Behnoud
Shojaee and will be hanged on October 21st, 2009 at 4 am at Evin prison
in Tehran.
Safar Angouti was born to a poor family and he has two
siblings. He is currently held at Rajai-Shahr prison in Karaj. His only
hope now is an order by the Judiciary or the consent of the victim’s
family to stop his execution. He has been to gallows twicem and each
time his execution has been stopped by the order of the judiciary.
Mohammad Reza Haddadi, Date of Birth: March 17th, 1988, 15 Years Old at the Time his Arrest
In
a recent visit to the enforcement branch of the Shiraz Tribunal,
Mohammad Reza Haddadi’s father has been told that the branch has
ordered the Shiraz prison to carry out his son’s sentence. During his
last visit to the branch he was told that the hanging would take place
in the coming days at Adel-Abad Prison in Shiraz. I, as the defense
lawyer, have not received notice of the date of his execution. In the
past, one of my clients, Behnam Zarei, was hanged without my knowledge.
On
August 21st, 2003, Hossein Rahmat filed a missing person report with
the Kazeroun police for his father, Mohammad-Bagher, who had not
returned after leaving on a trip to Shiraz 2 days prior. 9 days later,
on August 30th, 2003, he informed the authorities that his father’s car
was found in Fath-Abad, a village near Kazaeroun. During the police
investigation, a man named
Mehdi Sasani confessed that he, along
with Mohammad Ghorbani, Taghi and Karim, had abducted Mohammad-Bagher
and killed him later.
On October 12th, 2003, a man named Karim
Haddadi was arrested. He said in the deposition, ”… I, along with Mehdi
Sasani, Taghi Haddadi and Mohammad, were waiting on the road next to
Emam-Zadeh Sayed Hossein. At about midnight we saw an orange sport
Paykan approaching. Mohammad Ghorbani and Taghi Haddad both made a sign
and the car stopped. We got in the car. When we passed Ghaemieh on the
way to Shiraz, Mohammad asked the driver if he would agree to take
another passenger in return for more money. The driver agreed. During
the ride we asked the driver to make a stop so we could relieve
ourselves, and he stopped the car on the side of the road. Mohammad and
I went down the hill; Mehdo and Taghi stayed with the driver. As the
driver was pouring water into the radiator of the car, Taghi hit him on
the head with a rock. The driver fell to the ground. When Mohammad and
I returned, we all started beating the driver all over his body. We
then put his body in the trunk and drove until we reached Hakim-Bashi
and Roshnabad. While we were driving we realized that the driver was
still alive and was making noises from inside the trunk. We drove to a
side road and Taghi stopped the car. When we opened the trunk the old
man was still alive. Mehdi Sasani hit him twice with a bat, and the old
man fell to the ground. Mohammad and Taghi then strangled him with
plastic wire. Taghi suggested that we burn the body. We brought some
gasoline and set the body on fire. We then dumped the body in a ditch
and covered it with leaves.”
The medical examiner was not able to
define the exact cause of death and ruled that concussion and scalp
fracture were likely causes of death.
During further investigations,
my client, Mohammad Reza Haddadi, who was 15 ½ years old at the time,
was arrested. In the initial questioning he claimed that he had
strangled the victim with a plastic wire. On October 30th, 2003, in the
arraignment, my client agreed to the charges and confessed to having
committed the crime.
A few days after the hearing Mohammad Reza’s
mother went to visit him in prison. Mohammad Reza asked her if she had
received the money. After his mother confirmed that she had not,
Mohammad Reza realized that he had been played by the other defendants.
On November 4th, 2003, in a letter, he informed the court officials
that he agreed to accept the charges in return for money after he was
deceived by the other defendants, who were older and more mature than
him. He claimed that he was innocent and had not been a party to the
crime.
In the end Mohammad Reza’s claims and his denial were not
investigated, and on January 6th, 2004, based only on his initial
confession, the court found him guilty of murder. He was sentenced to
death on charges of murder, 15 years of prison for taking part in
kidnapping (Article 621 of Islamic Criminal Law) and 1 year of prison
for hiding the body of the victim
(Article 636 of the same law). The other
defendants were found guilty of kidnapping, hiding the body of the
victim and mutilation of a corpse and were sentenced to long prison
terms.
The defendants appealed the ruling, and, on June 25th, 2005,
the case was sent to District 42 of the Supreme Court. Their appeal was
rejected by the court, who agreed with the initial ruling.
Since the
ruling, new evidence has been introduced to the court, including the
confession of the other defendants, who have all admitted my client’s
innocence. Based on Article 18, we have asked for an investigation of
the new evidence, as well as called for a new trial. District 3 of the
Supreme Court has denied our request. If they valued human life, they
would have ordered a thorough investigation of the case. Mohammad Reza
has claimed repeatedly that he has been lured by the other defendants,
who promised to pay money to his family. One of the co-defendants had
promised to help him marry his cousin, whom he loved, if he confessed
to committing the murder. Mohammad Reza was a minor and lacked maturity
of thought. He comes from a low income family and loved the girl. He
finally gave in and agreed to their demands.
The young man dies a thousand times everyday. He faces the nightmare of death despite being innocent.
Amir Amirolahi, Date of Birth: November 1st, 1989, 17 years old at the time of his arrest
On
November 19th, 2005, at about 11:30 am, Amir and a group of his friends
(Hassan Mohammadi and Ali Salmani) were hanging out in front of a
bakery on Azadegan Street in Shiraz, when the victim, Mohsen Kazemi,
and his friend Javad Vaziri showed up. The teenagers got into a fight
after the victim and one of Amir’s friends started to stare at each
other. Amir decided to intervene and asked his friend Ali Salamani to
lend him his knife in case he had to defend himself. He also wanted to
scare the other group with the knife and make them run away. Apparently
the victim started to beat Amir, who was very young, for no reason.
Amir, who was provoked, showed the victim his knife to scare him, but
the victim stubbornly stayed and hit Amir in the face. Amir retaliated
by hitting him back with the knife handle to make him go away, but the
victim did not give in. By that time, everyone was involved in the
fighting. When the victim went toward Amir to hit him again, Amir
pointed the knife at his assailant. The knife then suddenly penetrated
the right side of the victim’s chest.
Amir, frightened, fled the
scene and told his father about the accident on the same day it
occured. He and his father went to the authorities, where Amir turned
himself in. At the time, Amir did not have any idea that four out of
the five judges would sentence him to death without any consideration
for his age or his state of mind.
Anyhow, the judges of the 5th
District of the Shiraz criminal tribunal found him guilty, and their
ruling was upheld by District 27 of the Supreme Court. The case was
then referred to the enforcement branch and was endorsed by the head of
the judiciary, who decided that the sentence should be carried out. The
young man was only 16 at the time of the crime. When
tAmir’s father went to the enforcement
branch recently, he was told that the death sentence of his son would
be carried out in the next few days.
There are serious grounds for objection to the death sentence, and the ruling is filled with ambiguous points:
1-
As one of the experts of the district court testified, Amir was 16
years old at the time of the crime and lacked judgment to exercise
self-control when faced with problematic situations. The opinion of the
expert should have been taken into consideration by the court. The
court should have ordered an examination by medical experts to find out
if Amir was legally mature at the time of the crime. The following
facts must also be taken into consideration. Islamic Criminal Law does
not define the age of maturity in criminal cases. Maturity is only
defined from a religious perspective. Furthermore, considering that
there are other parts of the same law where minors have been defined
criminally not responsible as a result of their age – which, in my
client’s case, should be an advantage – the request for an examination
of my client’s maturity by experts should have been taken seriously.
Instead, the ruling was issued hurriedly the same day that the court
expert had testified about Amir’s age. This is an important defense
argument and can have a significant impact on the outcome.
2-
The financial situation of Amir and his family had made it impossible
for them to hire a professional defense lawyer; therefore, they had to
use the services of a court appointed lawyer. As a result of his old
age and his illness, the court appointed lawyer could not sufficiently
argue the shortcomings and inconsistencies in the prosecutor’s case.
Amir’s emotional and psychological state often makes him lose control
of his acts. During these nervous breakdowns he commits acts that are
out of his control. Thus, it would have been essential to his defense
case to have him examined by the experts of the ME’s office, who could
have given an expert opinion on Amir’s periodic sessions of insanity.
Additionally, he was treated with tranquilizers while he was detained
in the juvenile detention center. All the documents relating to his
treatment are available. This is another important fact that was not
taken into consideration. The ruling remains ambiguous when it comes to
my client’s psychological state. Although Amir has expressed remorse
for his act, the fact remains that he never intended to commit it in
the first place. He committed an act that was out of his control
without any prior motive or premeditation.
3- As is clear from the testimony of
different witnesses, when the victim fell to the ground, many people
were present at the scene. However, none of them made any effort to
take the victim to a medical facility. The ambulance arrived at the
scene 30 minutes later and took the victim to the hospital, where he
later died. This brings us to an important point: by the time the
victim was taken to the hospital, he had already lost a lot of blood
and was unconscious. The hospital to which he was taken was not well
equipped, otherwise, with proper medical help, he would have survived.
The honorable judges and court
officers should have executed a thorough
investigation into the cause of death. If the victim died as a result
of excessive bleeding and not because of my client’s action, the charge
should have been reduced to manslaughter. Therefore, the ruling which
was issued for the charge of premeditate murder is illegal and against
religious norms.
4- Article 206(B) of Islamic Criminal Law
defines premeditated murder as: “when a person intentionally commits a
premeditated act that results in the death of another person.” All the
evidence and contents in the case against Amir prove that he did not
intend nor premeditate his act. Had he intended to kill the victim, he
would have stabbed him in the heart. The tragedy happened when Amir,
faced with the stubbornness of the victim, lost control and unknowingly
hit him. Amir ended up in prison and another family lost their son.
Finally
One important issue that has been
neglected by all the judges who have tried similar cases is the fact
that in 1993 the Majlis debated the Convention on the Rights of the
Child durin a open session. The honorable members of the Majlis
ratified the convention by a majority and sent the bill to the
honorable Guardian Council for approval. The honorable members of the
Guardian Council also conditionally ratified the convention. The single
amendment attached by the Islamic Republic of Iran to the
aforementioned convention states that “the Convention for the Rights of
the Child, including its introduction and its 54 articles, is ratified
and binding by the Islamic Republic of Iran if the content of each and
every article is not in contravention with the national laws or the
religious regulations. If they are in contravention, they will not be
considered binding.” In their opinion #5760, the honorable members of
the Guardian Council listed the articles that were in contravention
with the religious laws. The list is as follows: “Articles 12 (1), 13
(1, 3), 14 (1, 3), 15 (2), 16 (1), and 29 (1-d) are in contravention
with known Islamic norms.” Therefore, with the exclusion of the
aforementioned articles, the rest of the articles of the Convention are
not in contravention of Sharia law and shall be enforced by all
officers of the courts, based on Article 9 of the civil law that
states, “All international treaties that, in accordance with the
Iranian Constitution, are articles of law.”
Article 37(a) of the Convention of the
Rights of the Child states that, “..Neither capital punishment nor life
imprisonment without possibility of release shall be imposed for
offences committed by persons below eighteen years of age”. Therefore,
death sentences issued to young offenders culpable of murder are in
strict contradiction with the law.”