Mohammad Mostafaei, a prominent lawyer working on child execution cases reported that Bahman Salimian, a minor on death row, is in imminent danger of execution. He is scheduled to be executed on February 5th in Iran.

150 lawyers have written an open letter to Iran’s head of Judicary Ayatollah Shahroudi demanding a stay of execution for Bahman as well as an end to executions of juveniles.

Bahman Salimian is accused of killing his grandmother in 1996 at the age of 15. He repeatedly claimed in his trial that his 70-year old grandmother talked of committing suicide so he killed her to minimize her suffering.According to Bahman’s attorney, he was not in a normal state of mind at the time of the offence that he even attempted suicide shortly after he realized what he had done.The trial judge had Bahman psychologically assessed. Expert concluded that he was suffering from a mental disorder therefore, his sentence was reduced to 5 years imprisonment and the payment of blood money. Other members of his grandmother’s family appealed the decision wanting retribution. Bahman was sentenced to death after 12 year imprisonment. Bahman is now 27 years old and kept in Isfahan prison. His execution had been scheduled to take place on 28 August 2008 but was halted a few days prior by judicial authorities to allow for further reconciliation attempts in order to negotiate a pardon from the only relative who still insists that the execution is to go ahead. Two of his uncles had pardoned him, but the third uncle did not.

For more information on Bahman, click here.

For more information on what to do and on child executions, go to Stop Child Executions.