Reza Alinejad
| Reza Alinejad رضا علی نژاد |
|
|---|---|
| Born |
September 21, 1985 Shiraz, Iran |
| Criminal penalty | Death by hanging |
| Criminal status | Exonerated; Free from prison |
| Conviction(s) | Assault |
Reza Alinejad (Persian: رضا علی نژاد) (born September 21, 1985) has been one of countless alleged Iranian juvenile offenders who was sentenced to death by hanging at the age of 17. He was accused of killing a man in self-defense.
In December 2002, while eating at a local marketplace in Fasa, Iran, Reza and his friend were confronted by a group of older men who verbally assaulted the two teenagers. The verbal altercation escalated, and one member of the group that had initiated the confrontation with Reza and his friend pulled out a weapon and began to beat the teens. In an attempt to defend himself and his friend against the devastating physical attack and to scare and fend off his attackers, Reza pulled out a pocket knife, and while covering his face and eyes from the blows with his left hand, he attempted to ward off his attackers with the knife in his right hand. As Reza struggled with his attackers in this manner, he accidentally stabbed one of them with the knife. The stabbing ultimately led to the attacker's death, and Reza was arrested on charges of murder and was sentenced to death by hanging.
During the initial investigation of this case, a number of exculpatory facts were established for the record, including the testimony of the decedent’s friend, who was present when the altercation took place. The eyewitness admitted that he and his friend were the ones who had started the fight, and without provocation from Reza and his friend, they had attacked the two teenagers with their weapons. The eyewitness testified that the teenagers did not have any way of escaping the altercation as they were surrounded and overpowered. They were severely beaten, leaving them with serious injuries that required them to be hospitalized. As such, the eyewitness admitted that the attacks that he and his by-then deceased friend's actions were so aggressive that he could understand why Reza and his friend had acted as they had to defend their lives.
Another eyewitness—who was not a participant in the altercation—confirmed these facts. His testimony, in addition to other evidence in the case, left little doubt that Reza had engaged in self-defense, and that he had no choice but to use necessary force to save his own life as well as that of his younger friend.
Despite evidence supporting Reza's claim that he stabbed the man in self-defense, as well as the fact that he was a minor at the time of the incident, Reza Alinejad was sentenced to qesas- retribution- for murder by Section 6 of the Criminal Court in Fasa on October 4, 2003.
When the case reached Iran's highest court for review in December 2004, this death sentence was rejected by the judge, who accepted that the teenager had acted in self-defence. The judge acknowledged that the instigators of the dispute were the dead man and his friend, that they had attacked Reza Alinejad and his friend with the nunchaku and had injured them, and that the stabbing by Reza Alinejad had not been intentional.
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