Address for Letters to Delara Darabi

On Tuesday, February 20, 2007, Lily Mazahery, the human rights lawyer who is spearheading the international campaign to save the life of Delara Darabi, spoke with Abdolsamad Khormshahi, Delara's lead counsel. The following is a letter that Ms. Mazahery sent to those who had signed the petition objecting to Delara's execution, including myself.

Those interested in sending letters to Delara Darabi should forward them to the following address:

Lily Mazahery (For Delara)
14 Bond St.
Suite 800
Great Nech, NY 11021

Delara knows a little bit of English, but letters will be translated to Farsi and the translation will be sent along with the original.

Also, there have been some reports that Delara is scheduled to be executed in a month. THIS IS ABSOLUTELY FALSE as are reports that Delara has been so shocked by the news that Iran's supreme court has upheld her death sentence that she has stopped speaking!

Here's is the text of letter from Lily Mazahery:

I spoke to Delara's lawyer, Mr. Khormshahi. He informed me that Delara's blood test results are still not in, but that he and Delara's father had requested a complete physical for Delara, because she has grown so thin and anemic. The news of the arrival of Iran's Supreme Court's decree of approval of Delara's death sentence has served as yet another blow to the naturally sensitive artist.

Mr. Khormshahi explained that in all the years that he has practiced law, he has never come across any one like Delara. He emphasized that unlike other individuals who had been in the news for committing crimes as minors, such as Nazanin Fatehi, Delara did not kill anyone. Delara's father describes Delara as a truly gentle soul who can not bear the suffering or unhappiness of anyone around her. When Delara's sisters would find themselves facing punishment for something they should not have done, Delara would routinely attempt to take responsibility for their actions, and would ask her parents to punish her instead. When Delara claimed responsibility for the murder of Mahin, she was, once again, trying to save a loved one – this time her boyfriend Amir – from facing the punishment that he was certain to receive. Amir had convinced Delara that because she was only 17 at the time of the murder, she could not be punished if she claimed responsibility. When Delara realized that Amir had lied to her, it was too late: She was already in jail for murder and faced execution.

Delara feels broken and betrayed. Despite her repeated claims of innocence and despite forensic evidence showing that the petite artist, poet, and pianist could not have been the murderer, the trial court sentenced her to death by hanging. Iran's Supreme Court has upheld that ruling.

In addition to facing execution for a crime that she never committed, Delara has had a difficult time dealing with the fact that the boy she loved and for whom she sacrificed so much has refused to admit to his role in the crime. Amir's silence about the events of the night of Mahin's murder has secured him a 10 year prison sentence instead of capital punishment. Delara, on the other hand, is haunted by images of death on a nightly basis and suffers from extreme depression. In January 2007, she attempted to take her own life in prison.

Delara's lawyer informed me that the one thing that has brought some joy and a smile to Delara's face recently is the news that someone in a land far away was thinking about her and had sent her presents. He asked me to continue sending her letters, books, and painting supplies, since -- true to her sensitive nature as an artist -- Delara loves beautiful things and words and finds comfort in knowing that she is loved by someone, somewhere.

Delara misses music. She misses playing the piano. She spends her days writing poetry, reading books, and, if she feels well enough, she paints.

In prison, Delara is loved by her prison mates. Her kindness and soft heart has touched all who have come into contact with her. Her lawyer tells me that not a week can go by without a call from Delara asking him to please help her prison mates, often offering to trade her own representation for them. It was not difficult to notice that, like everyone else who comes into contact with the young artist, Mr. Khormshahi is also affected by the gentle soul that is Delara Darabi.

Mr. Khormshahi asked me to continue spreading the word about Delara's case and to ask all those who care to keep the innocent girl-child in their prayers. He asked me to emphasize that Delara is truly innocent, that all the evidence shows that the left-handed, petite girl who was drugged by Amir before entering Mahin's home, could not have possibly been the murderer. And he vowed to do all that is possible under the law to, at the very least, obtain a new trial for the teenage prisoner, where he can present the evidence in her case file and introduce the expert and forensic testimony that was absent during Delara's initial "trial."

Please continue to speak out about the injustice to which young Delara has been subjected. Please sign the petition objecting to her execution and ask your family, friends, co-workers, members of your church, school, and community to do the same. Please keep young Delara Darabi in your thoughts and prayers. Please keep Delara in your hearts.

Warm regards,

Lily Mazahery, Esq.
President
Legal Rights Institute
--

INFORMATION ON DELARA DARABI AND HER CASE:

ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF IRAN (IRI)

Delara Darabi, aged 19, child offenderDelara Darabi, aged 19, is at risk of execution for a murder which took place when she was 17 years old. She denies committing the crime.

Iran is a state party to international treaties that expressly prohibit the use of the death penalty for crimes committed by those under the age of 18.

According to reports in the Persian language news service Aftab, Delara Darabi and a 19-year-old man named Amir Hossein broke into a woman's house to commit a burglary. Amir Hossein allegedly killed the woman during the burglary. Delara Darabi initially confessed to the murder, but has since retracted her confession. She claims that Amir Hossein asked her to admit responsibility for the murder to protect him from execution, believing that as she was under the age of 18, she could not be sentenced to death. Delara Darabi was sentenced to death by a lower court in the northern city of Rasht. The ruling was upheld by the Supreme Court and the official decree was received yesterday (Februrary 16, 2007). As such, Delara moves closer to execution.

She maintains her innocence, and has claimed that she took responsiblity for the crime to save the life of her boyfriend.

At this stage, the Head of the Judiciary, Ayatollah Shahroudi, has the power to order a stay of execution and issue a new trial for Delara, where substantial forensic evidence and expert testimony can prove that Delara could not have possibly been the murderer. Amir Hossein has reportedly received a prison sentence of 10 years for his involvement in the crime.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

As a state party to the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), the Islamic Republic has undertaken not to execute anyone for an offence committed when they were under the age of 18. Nevertheless, since 1990, the IRI has executed at least 18 people for crimes committed when they were children.

In 2005 alone, despite being urged in January by the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child to suspend the practice immediately, at least eight child offenders were executed, including two who were still under 18 at the time of their execution. The last recorded execution of a child offender, Rostam Tajik, was on December 10, 2005 - ironically, the day which the UN has marked annually as Human Rights Day. On December 9, 2005, the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Philip Alston, called on the Iranian authorities not to proceed with the execution of Rostam Tajik, stating: "At a time when virtually every other country in the world has firmly and clearly renounced the execution of people for crimes they committed as children, the Iranian approach is particularly unacceptable … It is all the more surprising because the obligation to refrain from such executions is not only clear and incontrovertible, but the Government of Iran has itself stated that it will cease this practice."

For the last five years, the IRI has been considering legislation to prohibit this practice, but despite this, over the past two and half years the number of child offenders executed has increased. Recent comments by a judiciary spokesperson suggest that the new law would in any case only prohibit the death penalty for certain crimes when committed by children.

RECOMMENDED ACTION:

Please send appeals to arrive as quickly as possible, in Persian, English, or your own language:

• urging the authorities to commute the death sentence imposed on Delara Darabi immediately;


• reminding the authorities of their commitment to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which states that "sentence of death shall not be imposed for crimes committed by persons below eighteen years of age";


• asking for details of her trial and any appeals;


• expressing concern at reports that Delara Darabi confessed to the murder in order to protect her co-accused;


• calling on the authorities of the IRI to implement the recommendations of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child, which, in January 2005 called on the Islamic regime to "immediately suspend the execution of all death penalties imposed on persons for having committed a crime before the age of 18, and to abolish the death penalty as a sentence imposed on persons for having committed crimes before the age of 18, as required by article 37 of the Convention";


• acknowledging that governments have a responsibility to bring to justice those suspected of criminal offences such as murder, but stating your unconditional opposition to the death penalty, as the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment and violation of the right to life.

APPEALS TO:

Leader of the Islamic Republic
Ayatollah Sayed Ali Khamenei
The Office of the Supreme Leader,
Shoahada Street, Qom, Islamic Republic of Iran
Fax: + 98 251 7 774 2228
(mark "FAO the Office of His Excellency, Ayatollah Khamenei")
Email: info@leader.irhttp://blog.myspace.com/istiftaa@wilayah.org

Head of the Judiciary
Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi
Ministry of Justice
Park-e Shahr, Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran
Please note that Ayatollah Shahroudi DOES NOT USE EMAIL. Please send your appeal via the judiciary website: http://iranjudiciary.org/

COPIES TO:

Speaker of Parliament
Gholamali Haddad Adel
Majles-e Shoura-ye EslamiImam
Khomeini Avenue, Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran
Fax: + 98 21 6 646 1746

and to diplomatic representatives of Iran accredited to your country.

*** PLEASE SEND APPEALS IMMEDIATELY ***

Additionally, if you have not done so already, PLEASE SIGN THE PETITION to save Delara from execution.

--
RELEVANT LINKS:

Amnesty International:
http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGMDE130012006?open&of=ENG-392

Dead Woman Painting (Guardian, U.K): http://www.guardian.co.uk/elsewhere/journalist/story/0,,1931227,00.html

Flash presentation of paintings by Delara Darabi: http://www.womeniniran.net/EG/delara/delarasiteEn.html

Delara Darabi, teenager on death row faces abuse in prison, International Campaign Against Honor Killings:
http://www.stophonourkillings.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=985

Delara's Death Sentence Upheld by Iran's Supreme Court (Text of Lily Mazahery's speech), Iranian and Kurdish Women's Rights Organization:
http://www.ikwro.org.uk/index2.php?option=com_content&do_pdf=1&id=89