Atefah Sahaaleh

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Atefah Sahaaleh (* 1988 in Neka , Iran ; † August 15, 2004 ) was a 16-year-old schoolgirl who was hanged after being sentenced to death a week earlier for adultery and "unchaste behavior" through Islamic law .

prehistory

When Atefah was five years old, her mother died in a car accident. Her father became a drug addict and she also looked after her grandparents. She was picked up three times by the Islamic Religious Police and found guilty of “sex with unmarried men”. According to research by the BBC, Atefah was arrested during a raid on a cafe, the second time at a party, and the third time alone in a boy's car.

Arrest

The religious police arrested Atefah Sahaaleh again, this time at the family home. Since there was no suspicion of a crime, an unsigned petition , which accused her of “bad influence”, was used.

The girl confessed to "unchaste behavior" by admitting under torture that she had been raped several times . She was convicted of "unchaste behavior" for allegedly having sex several times with the 51-year-old married ex-revolutionary Ali Darabi, who, however, raped her several times. The court tried to interpret the abuse as seduction on their part. The girl appealed against the death sentence that had now been passed. A lawyer, the family could not afford and a public defender was illegally not granted her. The Supreme Court upheld the death sentence with unusual speed . This was due to the personal commitment of the judge Rezai. According to BBC research, the documents submitted on appeal indicated the girl's age as 22. However, her birth and death certificates confirmed that she was 16 years old.

Amnesty International reported after its own investigation that the girl had suffered from mental disorders before and during the trial.

execution

Atefah was publicly hung from a crane on August 15, 2004 . The judge took on the role of the executioner . They were left to hang for about 45 minutes. Her father was not informed of the execution . The following day her body was robbed from the grave; it has not appeared since.

Reactions

The execution has sparked controversy as Iran, a signatory to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, pledged not to carry out executions of minors. However, the Islamic court is subordinate to the Supreme Legal Scholar and does not feel bound by Iranian civil law. The Iranian judiciary has not admitted any errors in this case. Atefah's father drew attention to the minority and forwarded the birth certificate of his child to civil authorities, lawyers, journalists and the responsible judge involved.

Iranian media reported after the execution that Judge Rezai and several members of the religious police had been temporarily arrested by the Iranian secret service. Two officers were arrested for organizing a ring for child prostitution . Some newspapers reported that the arrested people were the religious police officers who last arrested Atefah and fabricated a petition against them.

The file on the case was confiscated by the later director of Iranian intelligence , Mohseni-Eschei .

media

The case was dealt with in a BBC documentary Execution of a Teenage Girl . The German version was prepared by the broadcaster WDR .

Promotion of the judge

According to the German version of the television documentary, Judge Rezai has now been promoted to a higher position.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Violence, poverty and abuse led girl, 16, to gallows. Iranfocus.com, accessed December 18, 2010 .
  2. ^ Execution of a teenage girl. BBC News, accessed December 18, 2010 .
  3. ↑ Amnesty International outraged at the reported execution of a 16 year old girl. Amnesty.org, accessed December 18, 2010 .
  4. ↑ Iran - Gallows for a 16-year-old. In: 3sat.online. 3sat.de, accessed on December 18, 2010 .
personal data
SURNAME Sahaaleh, Atefah
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Iranian girl, executed for alleged adultery
DATE OF BIRTH 1988
PLACE OF BIRTH Neka , Iran
DATE OF DEATH August 15, 2004