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I was encouraged by kamikaze to repost this here. I think you should do the same.

Please join our global blog campaign to save Delara Darabi.

The execution of the Iranian woman convicted of murdering a relative when she was 17 has been postponed. Delara Darabi was granted a two-month reprieve by the Head of the Judiciary on 19 April, the day before she was due to be executed.

Delara Darabi’s lawyer, Abdolsamad Khorramshahi, has confirmed that her execution has been postponed for two months after the family of the victim refused to attend the execution. They are, however, still demanding that she be executed. The lawyer has stated that he has forensic evidence proving that Delara Darabi could not have been the killer, but that the courts have refused to consider it.

Amnesty International has urged the Iranian authorities to commute her death sentence. Iran is a state party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which prohibit the use of the death penalty against juvenile offenders - people convicted of crimes committed when they were under 18.

According to Article 7 of Iran’s Code of Procedure on executions, the blood relatives of the victim or their lawyer are required to be present for the implementation of the sentence. Delara Darabi remains at risk of being executed unless the victim’s blood relatives agree to pardon her, either outright or in exchange for compensation.

(Above text from Amnesty International)

We have two months on us to exercise global pressure on Iranian authorities, if we manage to attract enough bloggers to the campaign. It helps! The postponement itself comes as a result of international pressure.

You can contribute in a number of ways:

Copy this blog post and pass the challenge on (please feel free to alter the text for personal customisation)
Sign the petition online
Copy the below quoted text, which can

be emailed to shahroudi@dadgostary-tehran.ir or info@dadiran.ir
faxed to + 98 21 3390 4986

Head of the Judiciary
Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi
Howzeh Riyasat-e Qoveh Qazaiyeh (Office of the Head of the Judiciary)
Pasteur St., Vali Asr Ave., south of Serah-e Jomhouri
Tehran 1316814737, Islamic Republic of Iran
Email: In the subject line write: FAO Ayatollah Shahroudi
Salutation: Your Excellency

Your Excellency

I am expressing my concern that the juvenile offender Delara Darabi is in imminent danger of being executed for a murder that was committed when she was 17 years old.

I am also concerned that reports say that Delara Darabi confessed to the murder in 2order to defend her co-accused.

I urge that the planned execution of Delara Darabi is halted, and that the death sentence imposed on her is commuted immediately. The Iranian authorities have by undertaking the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights committed to the law constituting that “sentence of death shall not be imposed for crimes committed by persons below eighteen years of age.”

Furthermore, I call on the Iranian authorities to implement the recommendations of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child, which called on Iran in January 2005 to “immediately suspend the execution of all death penalties imposed on persons for having committed a crime before the age of 18, and to abolish the death penalty as a sentence imposed on persons for having committed crimes before the age of 18, as required by article 37 of the Convention”.

I acknowledge that governments have a responsibility to bring to justice those suspected of criminal offences such as murder, but I unconditionally oppose to the death penalty. It is the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment and violation to the right to life.

Yours sincerely

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