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Delara Darabi’s death: shocking news
Working at Amnesty you’re supposed to be kind of unshockable. But you know what … it ain’t so!
For example … I got to my desk this morning and took a call even before I’d sat down properly. It wasn’t good news. In fact it was shockingly bad. Delara Derabi, a 22-year-old woman in Iran had been executed earlier today. Amnesty’s Iran researcher had just heard the news and was passing it on to Amnesty UK as we’d been active in the international campaign to highlight her case (more info here).
This is NOT what you want to hear at the beginning of the working day. What can you say? Obviously it’s yet another human rights outrage coming out of Iran (which sometimes seems to have an unending stock of them).
Delara, as readers of this blog will know, was a young person (aged 17) accused of a serious crime (murder) who ended up receiving a death sentence despite the execution of child offenders being unequivocally banned under international law. If this isn’t outrage enough, add in these four facts:
(1) There is dispute about the fairness of her trial, but no retrial was permitted
(2) She may have actually taken the blame for the killing to protect her boyfriend (tragically believing that as a juvenile she would at least not face hanging)
(3) Almost unbelievably, Iran’s Head of the Judiciary only very recently (19 April) ruled that nothing should happen in her case for at least two months
(4) The hanging went ahead today without even Delara’s lawyer being told, a blatant breach of the Iranian legal requirement that they should receive 48 hours' notice in these situations
And take a look at these outrageous statistics: Iran has now already executed at least 140 people so far this year, with Delara becoming the second woman and the second child offender. Since 1990 Iran has executed at least 42 child offenders, eight of them last year alone.
More figures: last year Iran executed by Amnesty’s reckoning at least 346 people, the second highest number of any country in the world. At its current rate of killing, then, it’s set to go above 400 this year, ie more than one a day.
So, yes, I am shocked. If you’re in the London area and free this coming Wednesday (6 May) afternoon between 4-6pm, please come to a special event to lay flowers for Delara outside the Iranian embassy (more details will be posted on the front page of the Amnesty website).
We want to mark her atrocious and outrageous death and also send the clear message to the Iranian authorities that there should be no further child offender executions in Iran. Thanks.
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18 Comments
I was also shocked and saddened by this news. And we are right to be so. For the many that Amnesty helps there wll be many more such as Delara Darabi who are lost to such terrible injustice. Which is why the work of Amnesty is so so important.
I hope that people will continue to be shocked at the horrendous and outragous abuses of human rights around the world, but that we do not let this beat us down so that we become discouraged and disillusioned. Instead let it spur us on to action and speak out against such atrocities.
Hi Katy.
Thanks for the comment. It's sadly not the first death penalty case I've worked on where the person has been executed – though it's probably the most sudden. As you say, it's got to be used as the spur for more – not less – action.
Cheers, Neil.
Hi Juliette.
Well we're going to organise a 'day of action' event for Troy Davis on 19 May. More info to follow.
Cheers, Neil.
sad news…
Wake up Iran…
I am
appalled
disgusted
terribly sad
nauseous
angry
hurt
in disbelief
of the sudden execution of Delara Derabi.
I can't imagine a country executing 140 people just in this year, and a child offender…. even that not proven.
I can't imagine a country where especially women are subjected to injustice.
I can't imagine, the pain her family is going through.
I can't ever support the government of Iran by visiting the country, regardless of how beautiful the country is.
If you can imagine the struggle I go through by living in Malaysia where the
government still carries out whipping though they use the word caning
which is a form of torture and still carries out executions. One whip
takes more than 4 months to heal. Some prisoners are sentenced to 60 whips, 20 at a time.
The day the death penalty and acts of torture is abolished,
will be a day
I celebrate
and remember for the rest of my life.
God bless her soul.
May it rest in peace.
I pray she will be cradled in the arms of the Divine, orreborn into a new life in a safe and beautiful land and the loving care of a new mother.
May her grieving relatives and friends find peace in their heart. And resolve to continue the struggle against human rights violations.
Love and peace to all those who keep the struggle up.
I just wrote about this on my site:
http://ronmossad.blogspot.com/2009/05/death-sentences-for-juveniles-real.html">www.ronmossad.com
I have blogged and commented on the Delara execution on several occasions. A word from me again, to remind us all that Iran's atrocities obviously aren't about to end.
First of all: Some 150 Iranian juveniles are awaiting death by hanging, of which two are scheduled to take place tomorrow.
Please spread the word through as many channels as possible (blogs, Twitter, Facebook, Myspace – and the press).
So sad to hear about Delara's execution. My thoughts and prayers are with her family.
As an Iranian I would like to say that Iran is filled with warm hearted and friendly people but governed by inhumane, unjust and corrupt officials that have back pedaled on many issues including civil liberties and womens rights for decades. Our perception in the world should not be reflected by Iran's goverment.
Rest in peace Delara
Hi Maryam.
Thanks for the comment. However much we might complain about the Iranian authorities' behaviour – you're right: we shouldn't confuse that with the behaviour and outlook of ordinary Iranian people.
Neil.
Amnesty members are holding worldwide actions today in front of Iranian embassies to protest at the execution of Delara Darabi and other juvenile offenders.
Amnesty International Secretary General Irene Khan will lay white lilies in front of the Iranian embassy in London at 4.30 today. She will also be joined by Amnesty activists and by Alistair Carmichael, Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for the Abolition of the Death Penalty.
Do come along. The embassy is at 16 Princes Gate, London SW7 (Knightsbridge area)
Two other executions of child offenders, Amir Khaleghi and Safar Angooti, were scheduled to take place today. We heard this morning that the executions have been stayed for a month.
However, after Delara was executed, despite a two-month stay of execution being issued less than a fortnight earlier, these assurances simply cannot be trusted.
And unfortunately 130 juvenile offenders sentenced to death are awaiting execution in Iran (source).
I think we all die a little when such a 'judicial' execution is allowed to take place. Something bestial is involved and all humanity suffers.