02.12.2009

The Presidency of the European Union is deeply concerned by reports of the imminent executions of Mohammad-Reza Haddadi and Amir Amrollah, both convicted and sentenced to death for crimes committed as minors. The Presidency reiterates the previous communications by the European Union with the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran on executions of minors.

The Presidency, on behalf of the European Union, urges the Islamic Republic of Iran to commute the death sentences for Mr Haddadi and Mr Amrollah, to abolish the use of the death penalty for crimes committed before the age of eighteen and further to amend its legislation to bring it in line with the international human rights conventions that Iran has ratified, including the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

The Presidency reiterates the longstanding opposition of the European Union to the death penalty in all circumstances and recalls that any miscarriage or failure of justice in the application of capital punishment represents the irreparable and irreversible loss of human life. The European Union continues to call on the Iranian authorities to abolish the death penalty completely and, in the meantime, to establish a moratorium on executions as urged by United Nations General Assembly resolutions 62/149 and 63/168.