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Iran Focus
 Tehran, Iran,
Nov. 13 – Iran’s
hard-line judiciary has summoned a four-year-old child to court to face
charges of assault on a ten-year-old, a Tehran-based daily reported on
Wednesday.
The boy, identified by his first name Amir-Hossein, was accused of throwing
dirt into the eyes of his 10-year old friend, the daily Hambastegi wrote.
Iran’s
judiciary routinely prosecutes and hands down heavy sentences to children
involved in various offences.
Iran’s
Islamic law permits boys above the age of 15 and girls above the age of
nine to receive the capital punishment.
In January 2005, the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child
urged Iran "to suspend immediately the imposition and execution of all
forms of torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, such as
amputation, flogging or stoning, for crimes committed by persons under 18".
Since the election of hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, there has
been a staggering rise in the number of children hanged or sentenced to
capital punishment.
The international human rights monitoring organisation Amnesty
International has said that Iran
had executed at least seven child offenders since the start of the year.
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