TEHRAN, Iran – Iran has executed a 17-year-old convicted of murder, drawing criticism from human rights groups and sparking outrage over the country’s handling of juvenile offenders. Hamidreza Azari was put to death on Friday in a prison in the eastern town of Sabzevar in Razavi Khorasan province, according to reports from Norway-based Hengaw and Iran Human Rights (IHR) groups, as well as the Persian-language satellite TV channel Iran International.

Both Hengaw and IHR stated that Azari was 16 years old at the time of the crime and 17 at the time of his execution. They also mentioned that Iran is one of the few countries that sentences child convicts to death and executes more juveniles than all other countries, citing at least 68 executions of minors in Iran since 2010.

Critics say Iran’s actions violate the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which defines a child as any person under 18 years old. IHR director Mahmood-Amiry Moghaddam noted that Iran’s latest penal code explicitly defines 15 as the age of criminal responsibility for boys, highlighting the stark disparity in the country’s laws.

Additionally, the execution of Azari follows the recent wave of nationwide protests in September 2022, sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurd, in custody after her arrest for an alleged breach of the Islamic republic’s strict dress code for women. This has led activists to believe that Iran is on a spree of executions unprecedented in recent years, aiming to intimidate the public in the aftermath of the protests.

According to the latest data from IHR, at least 684 people have been executed in Iran this year, mainly on drugs-related and murder charges. These figures further raise concerns about Iran’s human rights record and its treatment of juvenile offenders, as well as its adherence to international laws governing the treatment of children in the criminal justice system.