Scores of juveniles on death row in Iran - Amnesty

Iran is the world's most prolific executioner of offenders convicted while juveniles, Amnesty International said Tuesday, accusing the Islamic republic of using torture and ill-treatment to extract confessions from minors.

The rights group said Iran "tops the grim global table of executioners of juvenile offenders" with 73 recorded executions between 2005 and 2015, including at least four last year.

"Iran is one of the few countries that continues to execute juvenile offenders in blatant violation of the absolute legal prohibition on the use of the death penalty against people under the age of 18 years at the time of the crime," said Amnesty's Middle East deputy director, Said Boumedouha.

London-based Amnesty said most of the known such executions in Iran were for murder, rape, drug-related offences and a national security-related offence known as "enmity against God"...
  AFP - ahram.org.eg
26/1/16