Brussels, 23/09/2011 (Agence Europe) - EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Catherine Ashton has condemned “in the strongest terms” the public hanging of Alireza Molla-Soltani in Iran. In a press release published on Thursday 22 September, she states that, at the time of his “alleged offence”, Soltani was under 18 and that his execution stands, therefore, “in clear contravention” of Iran's international obligations under the international conventions. Molla-Soltani was charged with stabbing a well-known body-builder to death following an argument over a car accident.
Ashton repeated the EU's concern at the “alarming” rate of executions in Iran this year and its condemnation of the practice of carrying the executions out in public or by hanging. She reiterated the EU's call on Iran to “declare a moratorium on the death penalty”. (CG/transl.rt)