RIP Delara Darabi

Ardavan writes [fa] that finally Delara will sleep without nightmares.

It was 7am when Delara Darabi phoned home. "Oh mother, I see the hangman's noose in front of me," she garbled. "They are going to execute me. Please save me." Moments later a prison official snatched the handset away. "We will easily execute your daughter and there's nothing you can do about it," he barked at the parents. Then, with a chilling click, the line went dead.

Mohmmad Mostafai, a lawyer who followed Delara's case closely, says [fa]:

قاضی جاوید نیا حکم اعدام دلارا را صادر کرد. پس از مدتی دادستان رشت شد. از زمانی که او متصدی این پست گردید. یک نفر در این شهر سنگسار شد و امروز دلارا دارابی جانش از بدنش جدا شد.
ولی چرا؟
عده ای می گویند دلارا مقصر است. عده ای می گویند پدرش مقصر است و عده ای می گویند وکلیش؟ من می گویم دستگاه قضایی. چرا با وجودی که بسیاری از کشورهای دنیا اعدام اطفال زیر ۱۸ سال را منع کرده اند دستگاه قضایی بر اعدام اطفال پافشاری می کند؟

Judge Javid Nya ordered the execution. Shortly after he became the prosecutor of Rasht, he ordered a person to be stoned, and today (May 1) Delara Darabi's soul left her body. Some say Delara was guilty. Some say it was her father, and others say her lawyer is guilty. But I say the judicial system is guilty. Why does the judiciary system insist on executing minors, while most countries in the world have banned the execution of children under 18?

Delara Darabi (Persian: دلارا دارابى) (29 September 1986 – 1 May 2009) was an Iranian woman executed after being convicted of murdering her father's wealthy female cousin. She was 17 years old when the murder took place. Darabi initially confessed to the crime, but later denied it, insisting that her 19-year-old boyfriend carried out the murder during a burglary to steal the 65-year-old woman's money. The victim, who was stabbed to death, was the mother of three children.

Darabi spent five years in jail after her conviction. She initially confessed to the crime but later recanted. She claimed her boyfriend, Amir Hossein, persuaded her to confess by convincing her she would not be executed (as he would have been) because of her age.

On Death Row, Darabi developed a love of painting and completed several works that depicted her incarceration and asserted her innocence. A collection of her art was displayed at an exhibition in Tehran by supporters campaigning to free her. Darabi's lawyer, Abdolsamad Khoramshahi, had appealed against the sentence, arguing that her conviction had been based solely on her confession and that her trial had failed to consider vital evidence.

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