IRAN: DEATH SENTENCE IN JUVENILE CASE

Iranian authorities should immediately prevent the execution of Makwan Mouloudzadeh, 20, and commute his death sentence, Human Rights Watch said. On May 25, Branch Seven of the Penal Court of the city of Kermanshah sentenced Makwan Mouloudzadeh to death on charges of raping three boys as a 13 year old. The court handed down the conviction despite retractions on the part of his accusers during the trial and various apparent violations of Iran’s criminal procedure law. “Makwan Mouloudzadeh faces death for crimes supposedly committed as a 13 year old, which even his accusers admit never occurred,” said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. Authorities have apparently determined the place where Mouloudzadeh is to be hanged in public, indicating that his execution may be imminent. In September 2006, three men complained to police in the northwestern town of Paveh that Mouloudzadeh had raped them seven years earlier. The police arrested Mouloudzadeh, shaved his head and placed him on a donkey, parading him around the town. Iranian laws regarding “crimes of chastity” such as rape require that the office of the public prosecutor send the case for complete investigation to the penal court, where the judge may question the accusers and arrange for examination by a physician. Saeed Eghbali, Mouloudzadeh’s lawyer, told the Iranian press that the office of the public prosecutor defied these laws, carried out investigations on its own, and took the case to court, where the judge refused to accept the accusers’ retractions. During court proceedings, Mouloudzadeh claimed that all confessions he had made about the alleged crimes were false and coerced. On July 19, Iran’s Supreme Court approved the death sentence, which may be carried out at any time.