Sunday, July 23, 2006

Girl, 19, To Hang in Iran

Susie Boniface, Sunday Mirror:
A girl of 19 faces being hanged in Iran for a crime she didn't commit. Delara Darabi was just 17 when her boyfriend, Amir Hossein, persuaded her to confess to a murder he committed.

Believing she was saving him from execution and that she would be freed because of her youth, she told a judge she had broken into a house and killed a woman. READ MORE

Hossein, 19, was jailed for 10 years. Now human rights group Amnesty International has launched a campaign to free Delara, whose last-ditch appeal begins next month.

Spokesman Neil Durkin said: "We want Sunday Mirror readers to add their voices to the 2,000 appeals already sent by our members to the Iranian authorities."

Iran has signed an international treaty promising not to execute minors. Instead it imprisons them until they are 18 before ordering their deaths. To protest see www.amnesty.org.uk.