Iranian government about to hang a 22-year-old bride accused of killing her husband

Ms Zeinab Sekaanvand

A young woman of 22-year-old who is accused of killing her husband whom she says beat her for several months after marriage is about facing execution in Iran after the execution was previously delayed due to her pregnancy says a human right activist.

Zeinab Sekaanvand's execution was delayed after she remarried in prison that led to her getting pregnant because a pregnant inmates sentenced to death cannot be executed when she is pregnant as it is unconstitutional in Iranian constitution.

Zeinab had a stillborn baby after she realized two of her cellmate has been executed, that led to her trauma which might have affected the baby in her womb, she is to be executed by hanging on 13th October.

When doctors were examining her, they discovered that the baby died in her womb three days before she gave birth due to the same shock of her cellmate execution.

Zeinab is from a conservative Iranian-Kurdish family who are said to be poor, she was 15-year-old when she ran away to marry her husband Hossein Sarmadi, Amnesst International said.

Late Mr Hossein Sarmadi later turned her into a punching bag, using abusive words on her after Ms Sekaanvand thought she will be safe when she get married but reverse was the case.

According to her she reported the case of her husband abusing her but no investigation was carried out and even went further to summit divorce request but was rejected by her husband before trying to run to her parents still the parents disowned her for disobeying them by running away.

As at the time the husband died Ms Sekaanvand was 17 years old. She was arrested, after confessing she stabbed her husband to death that led to the police detaining her for 20 days in the police cell and repeatedly tortured by police officers.

She was convicted by a criminal court in Azaibajan Province but before the conviction she retracted by saying the brother to her husband repeatedly violated her and later killed his own husband which is her husband.

Ms Sekaanvand said he 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.

Iranian Court

In 2015, Ms Sekaanvand married a fellow prisoner at Oroumieh Central Prison in northern Iran, and became pregnant. Her execution was delayed until after the birth, as it is illegal to execute a pregnant woman in Iran.

Human Rights Watch says that as a party to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, Iran is obliged to outlaw death sentences for minors.

According to Amnesty, Iran has executed at least one person convicted for an offence when they were a child in 2016, and has at least 49 more child offenders on death row.