Iran’s judiciary summons 4-year-old to court

Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Nov. 13 – Iran’s hard-line judiciary has summoned a four-year-old child to court to face charges of assault on a ten-year-old, a Tehran-based daily reported on Wednesday. Iran Focus

Tehran, Iran, Nov. 13 – Iran’s hard-line judiciary has summoned a four-year-old child to court to face charges of assault on a ten-year-old, a Tehran-based daily reported on Wednesday.

The boy, identified by his first name Amir-Hossein, was accused of throwing dirt into the eyes of his 10-year old friend, the daily Hambastegi wrote.

Iran’s judiciary routinely prosecutes and hands down heavy sentences to children involved in various offences.

Iran’s Islamic law permits boys above the age of 15 and girls above the age of nine to receive the capital punishment.

In January 2005, the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child urged Iran “to suspend immediately the imposition and execution of all forms of torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, such as amputation, flogging or stoning, for crimes committed by persons under 18”.

Since the election of hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, there has been a staggering rise in the number of children hanged or sentenced to capital punishment.

The international human rights monitoring organisation Amnesty International has said that Iran had executed at least seven child offenders since the start of the year.