Iran hangs another man for crime committed as a minor

0 Comments | AFP, August, 2008

TEHRAN (AFP) — Iran has hanged a man for a murder committed at the age of 15, a report said on Wednesday, the second execution in a week that violated international rights conventions.

Behnam Zaree, 18, was executed in prison in the southern city of Shiraz on Tuesday for murdering a fellow teenager identified only by his first name Mehrdad in a streetfight three years ago, the Etemad daily reported.

Zaree had told the court that he did not mean to kill Mehrdad and asked for his family's forgiveness, the paper said.

Iran is a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, whose signatories commit not to execute convicts who were under the age of 18 at the time of an offence.

But on...