Photo: Human rights lawyer Mohammad Oliyaifard, sentenced to one year in prison
Iran’s Revolutionary Court has sentenced human rights lawyer Mohammad Oliyaifard to a one year prison term under the charge of “propaganda against the system” for objecting to the execution of young offenders. Oliyaifard is well known for taking on pro bono child execution cases, and he is one of the lawyer’s who was assigned to the case of executed child offender Behnoud Shojaee (Mohammad Mostafaei was the other lawyer).
Three meetings were held in branch 26 of the Revolutionary Court to discuss Mohammad Oliyaifard’s case. In the first meeting, Oliyaifard filed an appeal that was not accepted by the court.
Afterwards, Mohammad Oliyaifard also met with the judiciary who explained to him that they don’t ”execute,” they ”retribute” [The term retribute is most likely used in the context that the regime is collecting the lives of those sentenced to execution as just payment for punishable crimes].
At the United Nations gathering in Geneva on February 15, 2010, delegates from the Islamic Republic repeatedly stressed to representatives from other countries that no one in Iran is imprisoned for defending human rights. Mahmoud Abbaszadeh Meshkini, the director-general for political affairs of the Ministry of Interior, stressed, “We state explicitly that no one in Iran is arrested for being a human rights activist.”
On February 19, 2010, women’s rights activist Soheila Vahdati from Iran Emrooz interviewed Mohammad Oliyaifard on the details of his case. In the interview, Mohammad Oliyaifard pointed out the irregularities in Iran’s justice system. Oliyaifard stated that the Revolutionary Court charged him for giving an interview to VOA regarding his objection to child executions in Iran. Oliyaifard claims his objection was completely legal, and since Iran has signed the Convention of the Rights of a Child, Iranians should not be sentenced to death for crimes committed under the age of 18. Additionally, based on clause **5 of article 6 of the Civil and Political Rights Act, a “sentence of death shall not be imposed for crimes committed by persons below eighteen years of age.”
It is important to note that article 37 has been confirmed by the Iranian parliament and the Guardian Council; although the government states that they are entitled to ***conditional rights (scroll down to ‘Notes’ for explanation on conditional rights). According to international laws, the Iranian government is able to exercise conditional rights only if they are not opposed to the provisions of the convention. If they are opposed to the provisions of the convention, then their conditional rights are nulled. If a country joins the Convention on the Rights of the Child and accepts the conditional rights, then they are not allowed to violate children’s rights. This is why some believe that conditional rights are not possible in Iran.
The Iranian government states that they respect children’s rights, but will put a ten year old girl on trial because the religious age for a girl is nine years old (this is the age they are considered an adult according to Iran’s Sharia law). A boy who is 15 years or older can stand trial and be executed. Mohammad Oliyaifard told Soheila Vahdati that he believes ****article 49 of the Islamic penal code should not be linked to ****article 1210 (scroll down to ‘Notes’ for explanation on article 49 and article 1210) of the Islamic criminal code.
Currently, Mohammad Oliyaifard is involved in a complex legal situation regarding his case. According to Oliyaifard, the details of his case oblige him to follow an illegal process, and because of this, he is reluctant to cooperate. He has even stated that he is willing to accept the one year jail sentence than to act against the law. According to Mohammad Oliyaifard, after a sentence has been announced, it is processed within 20 days.
Summary translation of a detailed report by Soheila Vahdati for Iran Emrooz – Persian2English.com
NOTES
*Article 37 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child - (a) No child shall be subjected to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. Neither capital punishment nor life imprisonment without possibility of release shall be imposed for offences committed by persons below eighteen years of age; (b) No child shall be deprived of his or her liberty unlawfully or arbitrarily. The arrest, detention or imprisonment of a child shall be in conformity with the law and shall be used only as a measure of last resort and for the shortest appropriate period of time; (c) Every child deprived of liberty shall be treated with humanity and respect for the inherent dignity of the human person, and in a manner which takes into account the needs of persons of his or her age. In particular, every child deprived of liberty shall be separated from adults unless it is considered in the child’s best interest not to do so and shall have the right to maintain contact with his or her family through correspondence and visits, save in exceptional circumstances; (d) Every child deprived of his or her liberty shall have the right to prompt access to legal and other appropriate assistance, as well as the right to challenge the legality of the deprivation of his or her liberty before a court or other competent, independent and impartial authority, and to a prompt decision on any such action. Source: Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
**Article 6 Clause 5 – Sentence of death shall not be imposed for crimes committed by persons below eighteen years of age and shall not be carried out on pregnant women. Source: International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
*** Conditional Rights – These conditions state that if any provisions of the Convention contradict Iran’s internal and Islamic laws, the latter would override the Convention. This conditional acceptance of the Convention has allowed repeated violations of children’s rights and has prevented the existing legal system from protecting these rights. Source: Gozaar
*** Article 49 and article 1210 - Prior to the Islamic revolution, and based on the criminal code passed in 1923 and 1973, it was common practice that capital crimes, including murder and drug trafficking, committed by persons under the age of 18 were punishable by lighter sentences, with the rehabilitation of the convicts in mind. After the victory of the Islamic revolution in 1979, against all expectations that it would generally bring about more Islamic compassion — for minor criminals in particular — the judicial procedures and regulations abruptly changed. Based on Article 49 of the Islamic criminal code, courts decreased the legal age to the legal maturity age defined by Sharia rulings. Since the criminal code did not define any age as the legal maturity age, the court rulings were issued based on article 1210 of the Islamic criminal code, which defines the age of maturity for females as 9 lunar years and 15 lunar years for males. This has become the legal standard used by Iran’s courts in capital cases to this date.
Source: HRANA
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