
Iran Focus
London, 17 July – The World Medical Association has condemned state-affiliated doctors in Iran for their complicity in the facilitation of the execution of young prisoners in the country.
This follows the execution of Abolfazl Chezani Sharahi, 19, in June, who was sentenced to death in 2014 after the Legal Medicine Organisation in Iran gave their official medical opinion that he was mentally “mature” at 14, when the crime took place.
The WMA’s President Dr Yoshitake Yokokura and Chair Dr Ardis Hoven wrote an open letter to Iran Leader Ali Khamenei, President Hassan Rouhani and Head of the Judiciary Sadegh Larijani, in which they stated that the involvement of doctors in the execution of people aged under 18 when a ‘crime’ was committed is illegal under international law, unethical, and in direct violation of their duties as physicians.


