Iranian child offender Reza Alinejad is at imminent risk of execution for a crime he committed at the age of seventeen. The crime took place in December 2006 when Reza Alinejad and his friend Hadi Abedini were walking in a street in Fasa, central Iran. They were attacked by two men named Esmail Daroudi and Mohammad Firouzi who used nun-chucks (a martial arts weapon).

In order to protect himself and his friend from attack, Reza took a knife from his pocket and claims to have held it out in front of him using his right hand, while protecting his head with his left hand. During the struggle, Reza Alinejad claims to have accidentally stabbed and killed Esmail Daroudi.

During the subsequent investigation, Mohammad Firouzi admitted that he and Daroudi had started the fight by attacking Reza and his friend, who had been forced to defend themselves. Reza Alinejad and Hadi Abedini were injured in the attack and needed hospital treatment. An eyewitness to the attack has also testified that Reza Alinejad’s actions had been in legitimate self-defence to protect himself and his friend. Reza Alinejad has been detained in Adelabad prison in Shiraz since his arrest.

Reza Alinejad was tried at the Provincial Court in Fasa on 4 October 2003. Despite witness testimonies and his claims to have stabbed Esmail Daroudi in self defence, Reza was sentenced to qesas (retribution) for murder. In December 2004 this death sentence was quashed by the Supreme Court, who accepted that Reza Alinejad had acted in self-defence. It was acknowledged that the instigators of the attack were Esmail Daroudi and Mohammad Firouzi when they attacked Reza and his friend, and that the subsequent stabbing had been unintentional.

However, the Supreme Court sent Reza’s case back to a lower court for investigation, which was heard by branch 101 of Fasa Provincial Criminal Court. On 15th June 2005 the court again sentenced Reza Alinejad to death. It came to the conclusion that Reza could have fled the scene, and in not doing so he acted unreasonably. This death sentence was upheld by the Supreme Court on 9 May 2006.

Under Iranian law, Reza Alinejad has been granted a month in order to raise the required diyah (financial compensation) for Esmail Daroudi’s family. The diyeh is one billion Iranian rials, which approximates to US $100 000. If he is unable to raise this sum, it is likely that he shall be executed.

Reza Alinejad’s family have put their house up for sale, but worry that even if sold it won’t fetch the amount needed to meet the diyah. In early November, Reza Alinejad’s father went to court and was told that the family is required to raise the funds for the next meeting, scheduled in December.

Amnesty International UK Director Kate Allen commented that this use of the death penalty is even more shocking due to its application on an individual who was a child at the time of the offence, and who ‘appeared to have been defending himself from attack’.