Outrage as Iran executes woman, 23, for alleged murder when she was just 17
A 23-year-old woman made a frantic phonecall to her mother begging for help before Iran authorities held a rushed execution – disregarding a stay-of-execution and allegedly without informing her lawyer.
‘Mother they are going to execute me, please save me,’ Delara Darabi screamed, before a prison official grabbed the phone and told her mother: ‘We are going to execute your daughter and there’s nothing you can do about it.’
She was just 17 when she confessed to the killing of her father’s cousin, before retracting her confession, saying she had been defending her 19-year-old boyfriend.Delara Darabi was just 17 when she was accused of killing her father’s cousin. She has now been hanged in a rushed execution
Miss Darabi has become a figurehead for human rights, and her case gained widespread attention after moving paintings and drawings that she made in her prison cell were shown around the world.
She told a judge that she had initially confessed because her boyfriend, who she said carried out the killing, told her that, as a minor, she would not be executed and she could save him from being put to death.
Lawyer Mohammad Mostafaei said Darabi called her parents just moments before the execution on Friday. He quoted her as saying, ‘Oh, Mother, I see the hangman’s noose in front of me. They are going to execute me. Please save me.’
Iran executed eight ‘juvenile offenders’ last year, and 42 since 1990, according to Amnesty International.
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