Soghra Najafpour, Sentenced to Death at 13, Faces Risk of Execution
Iran is a country notorious for its execution of minors. According to Amnesty International, 24 minors have been executed since 1990 while 71 are on death row.
The Save Delara Campaign has provided the details of Soghra’s case, of which I provide a synopsis.
Despite the fact that two weeks ago the general court of Rasht, in northeastern Iran, released Soghra — a young girl who was sentenced to death at the age of 13 and had spent the past18 years on Iran’s death row — from prison on bail, the decedent’s parents have filed a legal request to carry out Soghra’s order of execution.
Soghra, who is now 31 years old, has spent the past 18 years of her life in jail. When she was only 9 years old, Soghra was sent to work as a maid in a home in Iran’s affluent sea-side city of Rasht. She has been accused of causing the death of her employers’ 8 year old son when she was only 13 years old herself.
Soghra’s confession was contradicted by other evidence in the case, which raised serious doubts about the truthfulness of the young girl’s confession…None the less, the trial judge sentenced the 13 year old to death.
The Untold Aspects of Soghra’s Case
Confidential information of Soghra’s case reveal that once she began working as a maid for the family of the decedent, she was subjected to sexual abuse and was repeatedly raped by Amir’s father. On the day of the incident, Amir’s father had once again attacked Soghra and was raping the 13 year old when his 8 year old son, Amir, walked in and witnessed the crime. In an attempt to get rid of him, Amir’s father pushed the young boy away, and that is how young Amir hit his head to the wall, fell to the ground, and lost consciousness. Soghra’s employer then forced Soghra to dispose the boy’s body in a well because he could not bring himself to do so.
Soghra’s claims of sexual abuse were corroborated by the medical examiner, who, in his report to the court, stated that the young girl’s body bore countless signs of prolonged violent sexual abuse. Furthermore, the investigators had determined that Amir’s father was, in fact, the man who had subjected Soghra to years of sexual and mental abuse.
When the trial judge reviewed this evidence, he ordered Soghra to receive 100 lashes for having engaged in inappropriate sexual relations, but refused to find Amir’s father guilty of rape. The judge explained that Soghra was guilty of inappropriate sexual behavior because the medical records clearly indicated that she had engaged in sexual activity. However, no such evidence was available to prove that Amir’s father was the man who had had sex with the young girl.
And now, the man who sexually abused Soghra from the time she was 9 years old, the very man who is responsible for confining Soghra to the horrors of life in prison for the past 18 years, the man who forced a 13 year old child to take responsibility for a crime that he himself committed, seeks to take away whatever is left of Soghra and her life by ensuring that she is hanged to her death.
Amnesty International has issued an urgent call to action. Please take the time to send the appeals and inform others.
