Reports from Iran say an 18-year-old man who was convicted of raping and killing a child when he was 16 has been hanged, despite calls by United Nations rights officials and Amnesty International to stop the execution.
Gholamhossein Esmaili, judiciary chief for Tehran Province, said that the execution took place on the morning of January 4, according to local media.
Amirhossein Pourjafar was sentenced to death in September 2016 after being convicted of the rape and murder of a 6-year-old girl from Iran’s Afghan community.
Pourjafar had originally been scheduled to be executed in October, but the execution was postponed following international pressure.
"The Iranian authorities must immediately halt the execution of this juvenile offender and annul the death sentence against him in compliance with their international obligations," Asma Jahangir and Agnes Callamard, two UN special envoys, said in a joint statement on January 3.
Amnesty International also called on Tehran to halt putting Pourjafar to death, saying that Iran was a signatory to an international treaty banning the execution of people who commit crimes under the age of 18.
Iran applies the death penalty for crimes including rape, murder, and drug trafficking, as well as apostasy.
