Statement by the Spokesperson on the execution of a juvenile offender in Iran

On 2 October 2018, Zeinab Sekaanvand, aged 24, was executed in Iran, after being sentenced to death in October 2014 for murdering her husband. 
 

Ms. Sekaanvand, a child bride and reportedly a domestic abuse victim, had maintained her innocence and had retracted her confession, claiming that it had been the result of torture.

Death penalty sentences and executions for crimes committed by persons below the age of eighteen are inconsistent with Iran’s international obligations under the International Covenant for Civil and Political Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The European Union is opposed to the death penalty under all circumstances and cases with no exception and aims for its universal abolition.