‘They couldn’t execute him quick enough’ Anger as Iran hangs gay teenager

A CHARITY has responded with fury after Iran hanged a gay teenager with “sickening enthusiasm”.

GETTY/AI

Iran has come under fire over its human rights record

Hassan Afshar, 19, was killed in Arak Prison in the Markazi Province after being found guilty of rape in early 2015 - an offence which he strongly denied.

The execution went ahead even though the office of the head of the judiciary had promised his family they would review the case on 15 September.

Afshar was 17 when he was arrested in December 2014 after the authorities received a complaint accusing him and two other youths of forcing a teenage boy to have sex with them. 

Crowds gather in Iranian capital Tehran

He denied rape and insisted the sex was consensual and that the alleged victim had been a willingly participant in sexual activity on previous occasions.

The Supreme Court in Tehran initially overturned the sentence due to irregularities in the investigation but ultimately upheld it in March. 

The case has been condemned by human rights group Amnesty International. 

Teenager Hassan Afshar has been hanged

Iran has proved that its sickening enthusiasm for putting juveniles to death, in contravention of international law, knows no bounds

Magdalena Mughrabi

Deputy Middle East and North Africa director Magdalena Mughrabi said: "Iran has proved that its sickening enthusiasm for putting juveniles to death, in contravention of international law, knows no bounds. 

"Hassan Afshar was a 17-year-old high school student when he was arrested. He had no access to a lawyer and the judiciary rushed through the investigation and prosecution, convicting and sentencing him to death within two months of his arrest as though they could not execute him quickly enough.

“In a cruel stroke of irony, officials did not inform Hassan Afshar of his death sentence for around seven months while he was held in a juvenile detention facility because they did not want to cause him distress and yet astonishingly were still prepared to execute him. 

"With this execution, Iranian authorities have demonstrated once again their callous disregard for human rights.”

The Supreme Court in Tehran

Afshar's execution has increased fears over the treatment and fate of 160 other juvenile offenders on death row in prisons across Iran.

Mughrabu said: “Any one of these youths could be next in line for execution. 

"The torment that Iran’s flawed juvenile justice system has inflicted on them will not end until the Iranian authorities commute their death sentences and amend Iran’s Penal Code to abolish the use of death penalty for all crimes committed under 18 years of age, as immediate first steps towards full abolition of this punishment."