“Minutes ago, the brother of Zeinab Sekaanvand told Kurdistan Human Rights that the execution sentence of Zeinab was upheld and her body has been handed over to her family,” the Kurdistan Human Rights Network tweeted on Tuesday morning.
Sekaanvand, 24, was taken to solitary confinement in anticipation of her execution on Monday. She had been convicted of killing her husband when she was 17. She was betrothed at the age of 15.
Her execution "is a sickening demonstration of the Iranian authorities’ disregard for the principles of juvenile justice and international human rights law," said Amnesty International's research and advocacy director for the Middle East and North Africa, Philip Luther, reacting to the news.
This is the fifth execution of a young offender in Iran this year, according to Amnesty.
The rights monitor had condemned Sekaanvand's death sentence in a statement the day before.
“Not only was she a child at the time of the crime, she was subjected to a grossly unfair legal process,” Luther said on Monday.
Forced or coerced and taped confessions are often used as evidence of guilt in Iranian courts.
“She did not see a lawyer until her final trial session in 2014, when she retracted ‘confessions’ she had made when she had no access to legal representation,” stated Amnesty of her trial when she was 22.
Sekaanvand told the judge that if she accepted responsibility (via the taped confession) she believed that she would be pardoned. She also said that her husband’s brother had raped her several times and he was responsible for the murder.
Murder victims’ kin have the ability to pardon their offenders and accept financial compensation instead under law adopted by the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Through her family, she informed Amnesty “following her arrest, she was tortured by male police officers through beatings all over her body.”
While in prison in 2015 she married a fellow inmate at the facility in West Azerbaijan province. According to Amnesty she became pregnant that year but gave birth to a still-born child “due to shock” two days after her cell mate was executed.
“She was returned from the hospital to the prison the day after the birth, and has not been allowed to see a doctor since for postnatal care or psycho-social support,” Amnesty stated.
Prior to her execution last night, she was given a pregnancy test that was negative, Amnesty revealed, as to prevent the execution of an unborn child.
Iran is second only to China in the number of death penalties carried out.
Updated at 6:44 pm
