Zeinab Sekaanvand, child-bride victim of violence could hang
After fleeing her poor family, she married at the age of 15. After months of abuse and violence, she tried in vain to get out through divorce. In 2012 she was accused in her husband’s death but police extorted her confession. Her death sentence was postponed when she got pregnant in prison, but her baby was still-born.
Tehran (AsiaNews/Agencies) – Zeinab Sekaanvand’s fate seemed sealed. The young Iranian woman was sentenced to death in connection with the murder of her husband who had repeatedly abused her, physically and verbally, when she was still under age.
Despite pleas from activists and humanitarian organisations to the Iranian government to spare her life, her execution is scheduled for tomorrow.
She was supposed to hang months ago but Iranian authorities postponed the sentenced because she had remarried in prison and become pregnant. On 30 September, she gave birth to a stillborn baby.
Doctors said the young woman's baby died in her womb two days before she gave birth as a result of the shock she suffered after her friend and cellmate was executed.
According to human rights groups, Ms Sekaanvand comes from a poor, conservative Iranian-Kurdish family, and ran away from home at the age of 15 to marry her first husband, Hossein Sarmadi. However, not long after their wedding, she said, he started beating her regularly and verbally abusing her.
The young woman registered several police complaints against her husband, none of which were investigated. Her husband rejected her requests for a divorce, and when she tried to return to her parents, they disowned her for eloping.
In 2012, this nightmare come to an end when she was charged with husband’s murder. She allegedly confessed to stabbing him to death.
After her arrest, she was held at the police station for 20 days and repeatedly tortured by police officers.
She was also denied access to a lawyer during her entire pre-trial detention period and only met her state-appointed lawyer for the first time at her final trial session on 18 October 2014.
Before her conviction by a court in West Azerbaijan Province, she retracted her confession and told the judge that her husband's brother, who she said had repeatedly raped her, had committed the murder.
Ms Sekaanvand said the latter promised to pardon her if she took the blame – as Islamic law allows a murder victim's family to accept money in lieu of execution. However, her retraction was ignored as were her accusations against her brother-in-law who got off scot-free.
In 2015, Ms Sekaanvand married a fellow prisoner and became pregnant. Her execution was delayed until after the birth, which turned into a tragedy in itself.
Iranian judges can spare under-18s the death penalty if they do not understand the nature of their offence. This was not investigated in Ms Sekaanvand's case, although an official examination found she was suffering from a "depressive disorder" characterised by insomnia and difficulty making decisions. She was denied medical care in prison.
So far this year, the Islamic Republic of Iran has executed at least one person convicted for an offence when they were under age, and has at least 49 more child offenders on death row.
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