Iran

International and regional human rights organizations called on Iranian authorities on July 8 to spare four youths facing execution and to stop imposing the death penalty for crimes committed by offenders who commit crimes while under the age of 18, and to uphold their international obligation to enforce the absolute prohibition on the death penalty. Iran executed 16-year-old Mohammad Hassanzadeh, an Iranian Kurd on June 10 for a crime committed when he was 14. Four other juvenile offenders are at risk of execution between July 11 and July 25. The organizations called on the head of Iran’s judiciary to suspend these four executions immediately. (HRW)