On this day in ...... 2005 (5 years ago today), boys aged 18 and 16 were executed by public hanging in Iran (flag at left). The punishment stemmed from allegations that they had sexually assaulted younger boys. A defense lawyer said that according to national child-offender laws, the sentences should have been commuted to 5 years in jail. The death penalties -- banned by the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child, to which Iran is a state party -- provoked widespread condemnation. Individuals like Shirin Ebadi, an Iranian attorney and the 2003 Nobel Peace Prizewinner, reiterated criticism of the juvenile death penalty, and some rights groups contended that the boys were punished not for committing assault but for engaging in gay sex.
(Prior July 19 posts are here, here, and here.)
