Amnest International: Fear of imminent execution/fear of flogging

PUBLICAI Index: MDE 13/048/2004 10 December 2004UA 332/04 Fear of imminent execution/fear of flogging IRAN Leyla M (f), aged 19"Leyla M", who has a mental age of eight, is reportedly facing imminent execution for "morality-related" offences arising from her being forced into prostitution as a child. According to a Tehran newspaper report of 28 November, she was sentenced to death by a court in the central Iranian city of Arak while she was 18, and the sentence has now been passed to the Supreme Court for confirmation.According a 5 May 2004 report in the daily newspaper Khorasan, Leyla M was sentenced to death on charges of "acts contrary to chastity" (a'mal-e khalaf-e 'ofat) by controlling a brothel, having intercourse with blood relatives (eteham-e zena ba maharem) and giving birth to an illegitimate child (tavallod-e bache-e haram). She is to be flogged before she is executed. She had apparently "confessed" to the charges. This report stated that there would be an appeal, and the 28 November report indicates that this process is now at an end.According to the 28 November report, social workers have repeatedly tested her mental capacities, and each time they have found her to have a mental age of eight. However, she has apparently never been examined by the court-appointed doctors, and was sentenced to death solely on the basis of her explicit confessions, without consideration of her background or mental health.
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