Safar Angooti is a juvenile offender who was arrested in 2008 after allegedly murdering
someone out of jealousy. He was sentenced to death in 2008 but his execution was postponed
multiple times. There is no recent information regarding Safar Angooti's case. The last report is
dated October 21st, 2009. The report mentioned that his execution was postponed for a month.9
C. Take steps to bring legislation in compliance with Article 37(a) of the
Convention on the Rights of the Child. Expeditiously lift or commute the death
sentences imposed against all other persons awaiting executions for offences
committed before they reached age 18
International law and human rights treaties define the age of criminal responsibility at 18 years
and above, those below the age of 18 are considered to be juveniles. 10 However, the laws in Iran,
and in particular the Islamic Penal Code, allow death sentences for criminals under the age of 18
to be issued. Article 146 of the Islamic Penal Code of 2013 establishes that people which are not
considered mature are not responsible for any crimes, while Article 147 says that the age of
maturity for girls is 9 years and for boys 15 years. The age of criminal responsibility defined in
this law 11 specifies that those who commit crimes will be subject to the penalties specified in the
law. This includes all crimes that are subject to the death penalty in Iran, including murder,
qisas12 (retaliation)4, organized crime, sodomy, adultery and moharebeh (waging war with
God)13. In the revised Islamic Penal Code of 2013 (IPC), the Islamic Republic tried to restrict the
possibility of issuing death sentences for those who are under the age of 18. Article 91 of the IPC
grants the courts the ability to ascertain whether the underage defendant was “completely
mature” and did not know the "nature of the crime", at the time of commission. If the defendant
was deemed not completely mature at the time of committing the crime, this would allow for the
use of alternative punishments such as imprisonment. The note of this article specifies that, at the
discretion of the judge, the courts “can” seek a medical expert’s opinion from a "Legal Medical
Organization" in order to decide on the maturity of the individual at the time of committing the
crime.
In practice, these amendments to the Islamic Penal Code have not prevented the issuance of
execution sentences for juveniles. In recent years, there have been many reports that courts have
been selective in applying this article and its note 14. In some cases, despite forensic reports
confirming that the defendant was not “fully mature” at the time of the crime, the judge ruled
that the accused individual(s) were mature and the language of Article 91 did not apply to them,
as they had previously been charged for criminal activities (e.g., robbery). At this time, the law
9
Amnesty International <https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/MDE13/111/2009/en/>
https://www.ohchr.org/en/professionalinterest/pages/crc.aspx
11 Article 147 of the Islamic Penal Code.
12
Qisas refers to retaliation punishments such as, if a person cuts off someone else’s finger, the victim may inflict the same
punishment onto the perpetrator.
13Article 279 of the Islamic Penal Code states: “Moharebeh is defined as drawing a weapon on the life, property or chastity of
people or to cause terror as it creates the atmosphere of insecurity.”
14 https://www.amnestyusa.org/press-releases/irans-hypocrisy-exposed-as-scores-of-juvenile-offenders-condemned-to-gallows/
10
3