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

On 14 October 2015, Fatemeh Salbehi was executed in Iran, after being sentenced to death for a crime committed in May 2010 when she was 17 years old.
Death penalty sentences for crimes committed by persons below the age of eighteen are contrary to 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 reiterates its concerns about the high number of executions in Iran, notably for crimes such as drug offences which do not qualify as “most serious crimes’’ according to the international human rights law.
The European Union is opposed to the death penalty under all circumstances and aims at its universal abolition.