PHOTO:Human rights attorney Mohammad Mostafaei
Iranian human rights attorney Mohammad Mostafaei’s client, a young Afghan [-Iranian] man named Nabi Dadtajik, was sentenced to death in 2005 for manslaughter. He killed a man (unintentionally) in a fight, most probably over a girl in Dadtajik’s family that he was interested in. Mohammad Mostafaei was assigned to the case last year.
When Mostafaei became his lawyer, he tried to gain forgiveness from the victim’s family to spare Dadtajik’s life. Now, the victim’s family have forgiven Dadtajik, under the condition that they receive blood money for the approximate amount of $15,000 USD.
Mostafaei has yet to raise the $15,000. Unfortunately, Dadtajik’s family cannot afford to pay the $15,000. Mostafaei needs to raise this money before Dadtajik’s life is spared.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
At a time when momentum is gathering across the world to abolish capital punishment, the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) currently ranks second for number of executions, after China, and first for per capita executions in the world.
According to the World Coalition against the Death Penalty, Iran executed at least 317 people in 2007, almost twice as many as in 2006 and four times as many as in 2005. In 2008, at least 346 executions were recorded. From January through the end of March 2009, Amnesty International has recorded 120 executions. (1)
These numbers are affirmatively believed to be below reality, since there are no publicly available statistics on executions carried out in the country. (2)
The Iranian legal system distinguishes between punishments considered to be the sole ‘right of Allah’ and those considered to be the ‘right of the people’. An example of the ‘right of people’ is qesas (Qesas is a retributive ‘an eye for an eye’ punishment meted out for a range of offences). (3)
In international law there is no such distinction. A death sentence is a death sentence, whereas in Iranian law, murder is treated as a private dispute between two civil parties, and the state’s role is to facilitate the resolution of the dispute through the judicial process.
In this sense, the death penalty is regarded as being imposed by the state, whereas qesas is imposed by the family of the victim. As a result, sentences of qesas are not open to pardon or amnesty by the Supreme Leader, whereas most other death sentences can be reversed by the Supreme Leader.
Murder by someone with diminished responsibility may be punishable by the payment of diyeh, a form of compensation. (Diyeh, also known as ‘blood money’, is a financial compensation determined by Sharia law and paid to the victim or his/her survivors). (4)
Actor Jeremy Irons, who is also an advocate against executions stated: “The death penalty targets the economically disadvantaged, those who can’t afford good legal council, those without a voice in society. There is a saying in the US: Capital punishment means that those without a capital get the punishment. Statistics show this is true.”
Thank you to Save Children from Execution
- Source: 1,2,4: FHID – Iran/ Death Penalty: A State terror of policy
- Source: 3: Amnesty International
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