The child-accused Arman Abdolali, is at risk of imminent execution in Rajai Shahr Prison
12-October-2021
Category: executions
11-October-2021
Newsgroup: Execution –
Breathing in Confinement: Arman Abdolali, a child-accused sentenced to death in Rajai Shahr Prison in Karaj, is in imminent danger of being executed.
According to Breathing in Confinement, the news organ of the Prisoners’ Rights League in Iran, Arman Abdolali, a child-accused sentenced to death, is at risk of imminent execution.
Yesterday morning, Arman was transferred to a solitary confinement cell in Rajai Shahr Prison in Karaj in order to serve his death sentence.
In addition, Amnesty International, referring to the imminent risk of the execution of Arman Abdolali, called for his death sentence to be halted. The organization wrote: ” Use of the death penalty against people who were under 18 at the time the crime was committed is prohibited under international law and constitutes an abhorrent assault on child rights.”
Arman Abdul Ali is accused of killing his girlfriend Ghazaleh Shakur in 2013, when he was less than 18 years old. He is said to have confessed to killing Ghazaleh after his arrest and during his interrogation, saying, “I pushed Ghazaleh because of my great love for her when she refused to marry me, and Ghazaleh died.”
Arman Abdulali denied the murder of Ghazaleh in the second court saying: “I was a child at that time. I made many mistakes, but I did not commit a murder.”
Arman’s lawyer had requested for retrial, given that Ghazal’s body had never been found, and that Ghazal’s family had taken leave from the university for her a few months after the murder, and that they renewed her health insurance. Afterward, the Supreme Court accepted the request.
“Given that we did not find any clues to our daughter’s body and hopping that our daughter might be alive, we took a semester off from her university,” Ghazaleh’s parents said explaining the reason why they applied for leave for their daughter.
Arman’s lawyer also pointed to the legal flaws in the case, saying that Arman Abdulali ‘s death sentence was previously scheduled to be carried out on January 1, 2020, at Rajai Shahr Prison. However, the execution was stopped after receiving a one-month deadline from the victim’s parents. According to Hussein Shamloo Ahmadi, Arman’s lawyer, “Ghazaleh Shakur’s family gave Arman one month’s respite to respond to the questions in the case.”