Delara Darabi
Encyclopedia
Delara Darabi (S29 September 1986 1 May 2009) was an Iran
ian Gilaki female, who was sentenced to death by hanging when she was only 16 years old. She was convicted of murdering her father's female cousin in 2003. Although Delara initially claimed that she had committed the crime, she subsequently recanted and explained that her older boyfriend, Amir Hossein, had persuaded her to lie about the incident to protect him. According to Delara and other sources familiar with the case, Amir Hossein was the person who had committed the murder in an attempt to steal from the wealthy member of the Darabi family.
Darabi served five years of a prison sentence for theft on death row after her conviction (in Iran, prisoners often have to serve time in prison before execution). She initially confessed, but later recanted, claiming her boyfriend, Amir Hossein, persuaded her to confess by convincing her that he would be executed (as she would not have been in most places, being a minor; but this was not the case in Iran).
While on death row
, Darabi, having developed a love of painting at an early age, completed several works that depicted her incarceration. In confinement, she also wrote poetry. Among her work is the poem entitled "Prison", a psychological and philosophical work on life in prison. A collection of her art was displayed at an exhibition in Tehran
by supporters campaigning her release. Darabi's lawyer, Abdolsamad Khoramshahi, had appealed against the sentence, arguing that her conviction had been based solely on her confession and that her trial had failed to consider vital evidence.
, in the province of Gilan. Before her arrest she was a high-school student. She had three sisters: Elaheh, Ghazale and Sheida. As of July 2011, Delara's oldest sister, Elaheh, has married and Ghazale has graduated from college. Her sisters were also born in Rasht.
Darabi was hanged in the morning of 1 May 2009. The news of her hanging was announced to the world by internationally recognized Iranian-American lawyer, Lily Mazahery
, who posted the information on Twitter
.
. The sentence was upheld by the Supreme Court. She maintained her innocence, and claimed that she was under the influence of drugs during the burglary, despite making a confession and pleading guilty earlier. At this stage the Head of the Judiciary had the power to order a stay of execution and a review of the case. The boyfriend Amir Hossein has reportedly received a prison sentence of 10 years as an accessory to the crime.
Amnesty International
has made several public statements about Darabi.
Darabi was a painter
and wrote a few poems during her lifetime. She had used her paintings and poems to express her feelings. In 2008 there was an exhibition of her paintings in Tehran; a similar exhibition was held in Stockholm in April 2007.
Darabi attempted suicide
by cutting her wrists on 20 January 2007. However, her cellmate noticed and called for help. She was rushed to hospital, where she was revived.
, or retribution (the death penalty) rather than diyya
, which is blood money. Amnesty International
arranged for letters in support of Darabi to be sent to Iranian authorities.
(ICCPR) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child
(CRC), Iran has entered into diplomatic commitments not to execute persons for offences committed when they were under 18. Nevertheless, since 1990, Iran has executed at least 18 people for crimes committed when they were juveniles. In 2005 alone, despite being urged in the January by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child
to suspend the practice immediately, at least eight juvenile offenders were executed, including two who were still under 18 at the time of their execution. Before Darabi's, the last recorded execution of a juvenile offender, Rostam Tajik, was on 10 December 2005.
On 9 December, Philip Alston
, the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, stated: "At a time when virtually every other country in the world has firmly and clearly renounced the execution of people for crimes they committed as children, the Iranian approach is particularly unacceptable... it is all the more surprising because the obligation to refrain from such executions is not only clear and incontrovertible, but the Government of Iran has itself stated that it will cease this practice."
According to the penal code of the Islamic Republic of Iran, children are considered criminally responsible for their actions as adults at the age of puberty. Pursuant to Article 1210, Addendum 1, girls reach the age of puberty 6 years before their male counterparts, at age of 9. Boys, on the other hand, are not legally considered to have reached the maturity that would make them responsible for their actions, such as murder, until the age of 15.
Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International
say Iran executes the most juvenile offenders of any country, in breach of the UN Convention, which forbids the death penalty for crimes committed under the age of 18. Lawyers estimate 130 prisoners are on death row in Iran for murders committed as minors.
Delara Darabi was executed at 5:00 AM local time on 1 May 2009 at Rasht Central Prison, without prior notification to her attorney and family. Just minutes before being hanged she was allowed to make a desperate last phone call to her parents, and she pleaded for them to save her, followed by the prison warden's voice informing her parents she was to be executed for her crimes immediately.
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
ian Gilaki female, who was sentenced to death by hanging when she was only 16 years old. She was convicted of murdering her father's female cousin in 2003. Although Delara initially claimed that she had committed the crime, she subsequently recanted and explained that her older boyfriend, Amir Hossein, had persuaded her to lie about the incident to protect him. According to Delara and other sources familiar with the case, Amir Hossein was the person who had committed the murder in an attempt to steal from the wealthy member of the Darabi family.
Darabi served five years of a prison sentence for theft on death row after her conviction (in Iran, prisoners often have to serve time in prison before execution). She initially confessed, but later recanted, claiming her boyfriend, Amir Hossein, persuaded her to confess by convincing her that he would be executed (as she would not have been in most places, being a minor; but this was not the case in Iran).
While on death row
Death row
Death row signifies the place, often a section of a prison, that houses individuals awaiting execution. The term is also used figuratively to describe the state of awaiting execution , even in places where no special facility or separate unit for condemned inmates exists.After individuals are found...
, Darabi, having developed a love of painting at an early age, completed several works that depicted her incarceration. In confinement, she also wrote poetry. Among her work is the poem entitled "Prison", a psychological and philosophical work on life in prison. A collection of her art was displayed at an exhibition in Tehran
Tehran
Tehran , sometimes spelled Teheran, is the capital of Iran and Tehran Province. With an estimated population of 8,429,807; it is also Iran's largest urban area and city, one of the largest cities in Western Asia, and is the world's 19th largest city.In the 20th century, Tehran was subject to...
by supporters campaigning her release. Darabi's lawyer, Abdolsamad Khoramshahi, had appealed against the sentence, arguing that her conviction had been based solely on her confession and that her trial had failed to consider vital evidence.
Biography
Darabi was born in the northern city of RashtRasht
Rasht is a city in and the capital of Gilan Province, Iran. At the 2006 census, its population was 551,161, in 159,983 families.Rasht is the largest city on Iran's Caspian Sea coast. It is a major trade center between Caucasia, Russia and Iran using the port of Bandar-e Anzali...
, in the province of Gilan. Before her arrest she was a high-school student. She had three sisters: Elaheh, Ghazale and Sheida. As of July 2011, Delara's oldest sister, Elaheh, has married and Ghazale has graduated from college. Her sisters were also born in Rasht.
Darabi was hanged in the morning of 1 May 2009. The news of her hanging was announced to the world by internationally recognized Iranian-American lawyer, Lily Mazahery
Lily Mazahery
Lily Mazahery is an Iranian-American lawyer, human rights activist, and an expert source on Iran. She is principal of and the founder and president of , an international non-governmental organization .-Overview:...
, who posted the information on Twitter
Twitter
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
.
Trial and sentence
Darabi was tried by a lower court in Rasht, found guilty and sentenced to death. Her lawyer was Abdolsamad KhorramshahiAbdolsamad Khorramshahi
Abolsamad Khorramshahi is a renowned Iranian lawyer.Khorramshahi was involved in several controversial cases including detained British embassy political analyst Hossein Rassam who was arrested after Iran's disputed presidential election in 2009...
. The sentence was upheld by the Supreme Court. She maintained her innocence, and claimed that she was under the influence of drugs during the burglary, despite making a confession and pleading guilty earlier. At this stage the Head of the Judiciary had the power to order a stay of execution and a review of the case. The boyfriend Amir Hossein has reportedly received a prison sentence of 10 years as an accessory to the crime.
Amnesty International
Amnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
has made several public statements about Darabi.
Darabi was a painter
Painting
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...
and wrote a few poems during her lifetime. She had used her paintings and poems to express her feelings. In 2008 there was an exhibition of her paintings in Tehran; a similar exhibition was held in Stockholm in April 2007.
Darabi attempted suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
by cutting her wrists on 20 January 2007. However, her cellmate noticed and called for help. She was rushed to hospital, where she was revived.
Petitions for clemency
An online petition to save Delara from execution was drafted and circulated around the world. The petition appealed to Iranian authorities, particularly the country's head of judiciary, to observe international treaties and standards and to commute Delara's sentence. However, there was no way the judiciary could do so, since the vicitim's family demanded qisasQisas
Qisas is an Islamic term meaning "retaliation," and follows the principle of an eye for an eye, or lex talionis, first set forth by Hammurabi, and subsequently included in the Old Testament and later legal codes...
, or retribution (the death penalty) rather than diyya
Diyya
Diyya is compensation paid to the heirs of a victim. In Arabic, the word means both blood money and ransom.-Islamic and Arab tradition:The Qur'an specifies the principle of Qisas Diyya (plural: Diyyat; ) is compensation paid to the heirs of a victim. In Arabic, the word means both blood money and...
, which is blood money. Amnesty International
Amnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
arranged for letters in support of Darabi to be sent to Iranian authorities.
Background information
As a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political RightsInternational Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights is a multilateral treaty adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on December 16, 1966, and in force from March 23, 1976...
(ICCPR) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child
Convention on the Rights of the Child
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child is a human rights treaty setting out the civil, political, economic, social, health and cultural rights of children...
(CRC), Iran has entered into diplomatic commitments not to execute persons for offences committed when they were under 18. Nevertheless, since 1990, Iran has executed at least 18 people for crimes committed when they were juveniles. In 2005 alone, despite being urged in the January by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child
Committee on the Rights of the Child
The Committee on the Rights of the Child is a body of independent experts that monitors and reports on implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child by governments that ratify the Convention...
to suspend the practice immediately, at least eight juvenile offenders were executed, including two who were still under 18 at the time of their execution. Before Darabi's, the last recorded execution of a juvenile offender, Rostam Tajik, was on 10 December 2005.
On 9 December, Philip Alston
Philip Alston
Philip G. Alston is an international law scholar and human rights practitioner. He is John Norton Pomeroy Professor of Law at New York University School of Law, and co-Chair of the law school's Center for Human Rights and Global Justice...
, the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, stated: "At a time when virtually every other country in the world has firmly and clearly renounced the execution of people for crimes they committed as children, the Iranian approach is particularly unacceptable... it is all the more surprising because the obligation to refrain from such executions is not only clear and incontrovertible, but the Government of Iran has itself stated that it will cease this practice."
According to the penal code of the Islamic Republic of Iran, children are considered criminally responsible for their actions as adults at the age of puberty. Pursuant to Article 1210, Addendum 1, girls reach the age of puberty 6 years before their male counterparts, at age of 9. Boys, on the other hand, are not legally considered to have reached the maturity that would make them responsible for their actions, such as murder, until the age of 15.
Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International
Amnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
say Iran executes the most juvenile offenders of any country, in breach of the UN Convention, which forbids the death penalty for crimes committed under the age of 18. Lawyers estimate 130 prisoners are on death row in Iran for murders committed as minors.
Execution
The head of the judiciary officially granted a two-month stay of execution, yet the go-ahead for her execution was given to Rasht prison authorities.Delara Darabi was executed at 5:00 AM local time on 1 May 2009 at Rasht Central Prison, without prior notification to her attorney and family. Just minutes before being hanged she was allowed to make a desperate last phone call to her parents, and she pleaded for them to save her, followed by the prison warden's voice informing her parents she was to be executed for her crimes immediately.
See also
- Stop Child Executions CampaignStop Child Executions CampaignStop Child Executions is a non-profit organization co-founded by Nazanin Afshin-Jam that aims to put an end to executions of minors in Iran. The organization campaigns to raise awareness about the issue and to put pressure on the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran, both in Iran and...
- Zahra Bani YaghoubZahra Bani YaghoubZahra Bani Yaghoub was an Iranian medical doctor, who died unexpectedly in a prison in Hamedan, after she was arrested by the Moral Police...
- Reza AlinejadReza AlinejadReza Alinejad was one of countless alleged Iranian juvenile offenders who was sentenced to death by hanging at the age of 17...
- Nazanin Fatehi
- Mosleh ZamaniMosleh ZamaniMosleh Zamani was a 23-year old Iranian Kurd who was executed on December 17, 2009 for having an "illicit relationship with his girlfriend" when he was 17 years old....
- Human rights in IranHuman rights in the Islamic Republic of IranThe state of human rights in Iran has been criticized both by Iranians and international human right activists, writers, and NGOs. The United Nations General Assembly and the Human Rights Commission have condemned prior and ongoing abuses in Iran in published critiques and several resolutions.The...
- Atefeh Sahaaleh