AP News, December 7th, 2007
A man convicted of raping three boys when he was 13 years old has been hanged despite a chief justice's order that the case be reviewed, the his lawyer and a U.S. rights group said Thursday.
Makwan Moloudzadeh was executed late Tuesday and his family told to pick up his body for burial Wednesday, the Human Rights Watch said.
"We were expecting an order for retrial by the Supreme Court," Saeed Eqbali, the lawyer for Moloudzadeh, told The Associated Press. "There would have been no harm in a retrial and it could have saved a life."
Authorities detained Moloudzadeh in 2006 on charges he had sexual intercourse with three teenagers, all under 18, in the Iranian Kurdish town of Paveh, some 440 miles west of Tehran.
The charges stemmed from complaints raised by the teenagers' families claiming Moloudzadeh had committed the rape eight years ago.
During the trial in a court in the nearby city of Kermanshah, Moloudzadeh tried unsuccessfully to revoke his earlier confession to the crime, which he said was extracted under coercion. His lawyer said that after the verdict, the plaintiffs dropped their accusations.
"But the judges issued verdict only based on their own understanding," Eqbali said. "Under the law, even if Makwan had confessed four times, it should not have mattered because he was not of (legal) age at the time of the crime."
In November, the head of Iran's judiciary, Ayatollah Mahmoud Shahroudi ordered Moloudzadeh's death sentence be suspended and ordered a retrial, saying the initial verdict was against the law, Eqbali said.
But the case, which was supposed to be reviewed in Tehran, was sent back to Kermanshah, where local judicial authorities speedily approved the execution, and it was "carried out quickly," the lawyer said.
Eqbali said the case was full of ambiguities, including a lack of investigation and evidence, and said he would sue the judges on behalf of Makwan's parents if they decide they want to.
Clarissa Bencomo, of New York-based Human Rights Watch, said the case was based on no forensic evidence and relied only on the plaintiffs' accusations.
Human Rights Watch has "spoken to individuals who have seen the body and the burial," she said from Cairo. The family was "very distraught," she added.
The family and lawyer were not given notice 24 hours before the execution as required by law, Bencomo said.
"The local judicial authorities ordered the execution contravening the chief justice's order," Bencomo said. "We are calling for a formal investigation both into the contravention of the judicial order and on authorities to bring to justice those who carried out the execution."
Iran this year has hanged dozens of people convicted of rape, robbery and kidnapping.
The London-based rights group Amnesty International says Iran has executed five people under 18 in 2007, and 27 since 1990.
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Associated Press Writer Katarina Kratovac in Cairo, Egypt, contributed to this report.
