A/HRC/28/26 allegedly subjected to prolonged solitary confinement and torture. Reportedly, neither Mr. Davoodi nor his attorney was present during the trial at which he was sentenced to death. The case is currently under consideration, given that the Supreme Court overruled the judgement and ordered a retrial. Furthermore, Hamed Ahmadi, Kamal Malaee, Jahangir Dehghani and Jamshed Dehghani, all members of the Kurdish community, were at imminent risk of execution at the end of the period under review. They were reportedly convicted in 2010 on charges of moharebeh and mofsed fel-arz (corruption on earth) following trials that fell short of international fair trial standards. 6 The authorities asserted that these individuals were involved in terrorist activities and were sentenced to death on the charges of membership in a terrorist group and carrying out armed attacks against the military establishment. 11. On 25 October 2014, Reyhaneh Jabbari, who had been sentenced to death for the alleged murder of Morteza Abdolali Sarbandi, a former employee of the Iranian Intelligence Ministry, was executed despite repeated appeals by various United Nations human rights mechanisms. Ms. Jabbari reportedly stabbed Mr. Sarbandi after he allegedly attempted to assault her sexually. Ms. Jabbari maintained that her actions had been in selfdefence. Serious concerns were raised about due process in this case, in particular that her conviction had been allegedly based on confessions made under duress and that the court had apparently failed to take all relevant circumstantial evidence into account. 12. In their comments on the present report, the authorities disputed the allegation of sexual assault and stressed that the judgement had been issued after all legal remedies were exhausted and that due process guarantees had been respected by the judiciary. In order to prevent the execution, the authorities stayed the execution twice to allow the two families to reach a settlement. On 31 October 2014, the delegation of the Islamic Republic of Iran participating in the second cycle of the universal periodic review argued that Ms. Jabbari had been hanged pursuant to the qisas (retribution in kind) system under Islamic criminal law, according to which the closest relatives of the victim determine whether the death penalty should be carried out (A/HRC/28/12, para. 134). It added that the judiciary had persistently attempted to persuade the victim’s son to forgive the perpetrator, but he had refused, largely on account of media propaganda. The Iranian authorities consider qisas to be a private right of the victim’s relatives that cannot be overruled by the judiciary; the right under international law to seek pardon or to have the sentence commuted is thereby denied to defendants. 13. The high incidence of public executions remains a concern. Indeed a spike in executions was reported in 2014; at least 50 public executions were reportedly carried out from January to the end of November, with the majority reportedly attended by a large crowd, including minors. Footage of executions is reportedly broadcast by the media, a practice that until 2014 was banned (A/HRC/22/48, para. 19). The authorities argue that public executions are aimed at deterring crimes, and that only a few cases have caused public outrage. The argument that public executions are an effective crime deterrent, however, disregards the deleterious effect on people, in particular children, who witness such scenes. 2. Execution of juvenile offenders 14. While the Islamic Penal Code, which came into force in June 2013, creates a more favourable environment for the implementation of juvenile justice standards for children in conflict with the law, it does not preclude juvenile executions fully. At least 160 juvenile offenders were reportedly on death row as at December 2014. According to the Special 6 OHCHR, “Iran: Execution of juvenile offenders breaches international law – Pillay”, 26 June 2014. 5