‎‎Teenager Escapes Death Sentence‎‎

A 16-year-old boy due to face execution has been released from prison.

The teenager was sentenced to death in 2012 for killing his boss, who had physically abused him.

‎‎‎In December 2012, a caller notified the Ardabil police that a body had been found at a construction site. When police arrived on the scene, they found a man’s body and large amounts of blood. The ‎‎forensic team determined that the man had been stabbed numerous times.

‎‎Chief of Police Colonel Mussa Alizadeh said the murder victim managed a curtain shop in Ardabil. According to eyewitnesses, a young man, the shopkeeper’s employee, had been with him on the day of his death.  The 16-year-old boy was taken into custody and interrogated by police.

But the boy told authorities he had stabbed the man in self-defence. He gave the following statement to Alizadeh:

"When school finished, I worked in the curtain shop. But after a few days, I realized my employer had malicious intentions. He abused me and videoed what he did to me. He threatened that if I did not do as he wished, he would publish the video online. On the day of the incident, my employer called me and said I had to accompany him to deliver curtains to a customer. I begged him that day not to hurt and abuse me. He promised me he wouldn’t. We went to an unfinished building. When we went in, it seemed very suspicious becasue the windows were covered with paper. I tried to escape, but he caught me. I knew he had bad intentions. I took out my knife, which I had on me that day to reassure myself. I stabbed him several times and fled. I just wanted to defend myself."

According to Boyer News, the teenager’s statement was sent to the criminal court of Ardabil Province. The victim's family told the court they wanted to press charges, and in line with the Sharia legal procedure of qesas, or retribution, called for the death penalty.

But the judge ruled otherwise, and ordered the boy to be released from prison. "After the hearings and listening to the defendant's remarks, the judges accepted that the murder was an act of self-defence,” said the defendant’s lawyer, Abdolsamad Khoramshahi. “The young man was acquitted from murder charge and was released from prison after being detained for two years."

Read the original article in Persian