Amnesty International has urged the Iranian judiciary to halt a death sentence against a 22-year-old woman. Zeinab Sekaanvand faces execution by hanging this week for the February 2012 murder of her husband.
Amnesty International called Zeinab Sekaanvand's court case a "grossly unfair trial," with limited legal counsel given to the accused woman. Aged 17 when she allegedly committed the crime, Sekaanvand was a minor by international legal standards, such as the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Iran is a signatory to both treaties, but ignores many of its obligations under their stipulations. Foreign nations appear to be hesitant in intervening in such domestic issues in Iran amid a general climate of rapprochement.
However, Iran defines adulthood as the onset of puberty, which it arbitrarily says starts at the age of nine for girls. Having married her husband at age 15, Zeinab Sekaanvand is therefore not considered a "child bride" under Iranian guidelines either.
Miscarriage of justice - and of her child
Sekaanvand's execution had been put on hold when it emerged earlier in the year that she was pregnant after marrying a fellow prisoner at Oroumieh Central Prison in northern Iran.
Doctors reported that the baby had died in the young woman's womb after she went into shock following a cellmate's execution in September 2016. Having given birth to the stillborn child last month, Sekaanvand could face execution by hanging as early as later in the week, rights groups such as Amnesty say.
False confession
Sekaanvand had initially confessed to the murder after her arrest, saying she had killed her husband after years of abuse; later, however, she retracted her statement, saying that it was her husband's brother, who had actually committed the crime, and that he had talked her into taking the blame. She had also been reportedly subjected to police violence after her arrest, which she thought she could stop by confessing.
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