Feature > Press Release > SAVE SINA PAYMARD BY IQBAL LATIF
Sentenced to Death in Iran
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Amnesty International has just heard of the imminent execution of Sina Paymard, who was sentenced to death in Iran for a crime committed when he was just 16 years old. According to reports, he has been moved from Reja'i Shahr prison in Karaj, to Tehran's Evin prison, for his execution to be carried out.
Sina Paymard, a musician, was due to be executed in September last year for murder. On the gallows, Sina's last request was to play the ney (a Middle Eastern flute) just one more time. The family of the victim were so moved by his playing that they granted him a last minute reprieve. They asked for 150 million toumans (over $US 160,000) as compensation instead. Sina's family have been unable to raise the full amount.
Iran continues to have one of the highest rates of executions in the world. Amnesty International has recorded at least 124 executions since the beginning of 2007, suggesting that by the end of this year the total number of executions could exceed the total of 177 executions that Amnesty International recorded in 2006.
Two recent victims of the Iranian authorities' use of the death penalty were child offenders, whose alleged crimes were committed before the age of 18, and a third was a man who was stoned to death. The two child offenders - Mohammad Mousavi and Sa'id Qanbar Zahi - were executed in April and May respectively, in direct contravention of international law, which requires that no-one should be executed for crimes committed while under the age of 18.
Amnesty International has just heard of the imminent execution of Sina Paymard, who was sentenced to death in Iran for a crime committed when he was just 16 years old. According to reports, he has been moved from Reja'i Shahr prison in Karaj, to Tehran's Evin prison, for his execution to be carried out.
UPDATE 18 July 2007: Amnesty has heard from Sina Paymard's lawyer that he was not executed last night, but his family have 10 days to reach a financial settlement with the victim's kin. If the money is not raised, then they are determined to have Sina executed. Further information will be posted here as soon as possible.
Please continue to send urgent appeals to the Ambassador of Iran to the UK, calling on him to stop the execution of Sina Paymard immediately.
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Many of you - over one thousand and counting - sent an appeal to the Iranian ambassador about the case of Sina Paymard, a child offender awaiting execution in Iran.
Sina Paymard was scheduled to be executed at dawn on 18 July. At the last minute, he was granted a 10-day stay of execution, to allow time for his family to reach a financial settlement with the victim's family.
They now have just days to raise the 'blood money' required.
The death penalty is the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment. It is vitally important that we maintain the pressure on this case, so we have updated our online appeal in light of this new information.
Keep up the pressure - send an appeal to save Sina Paymard
Mr Rasoul Movahediyan - Ambassador of Iran to the UK
Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran
16 Prince´s Gate
London SW7 1PT
I am urging you to make immediate representations to the central government in Iran to prevent the execution of Sina Paymard, who was sentenced to 'qesas' for an offence he commited when he was 16 years old, and to seek clarification of the reports that his family have paid the diyeh requested by the family of the man he killed.
Sina Paymard was 16-years old at the time of the crime for which he has been sentenced to death. His execution would be a violation of international law, which strictly prohibits the execution of child offenders - those who were under the age of 18 at the time of the commission of the offence.
I urge the authorities in Iran to immediately commute the death sentence of Sina Paymard, and all other child offenders under sentence of death in Iran.
The Iranian government should abolish the death penalty as a sentence imposed on persons for having committed crimes before the age of 18. An immediate moratorium should be imposed on the execution of child offenders until such changes can become law.
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