IRANIAN EXECUTIONS OF MINORS

Early day motion 2616, tabled 19 July 2006 by Chris Bryant (Labour). Signed by 145 members.

That this House commemorates the anniversary of the public hanging on 19th July 2005 of two gay teenage boys, Mahmoud Asgari and Ayaz Marhoni, in Mashad in Iran; notes that at the time of their alleged crimes the two boys were at most 17 years and possibly younger; further commemorates the hanging in Nekra in northern Iran on 15th August 2004 of a 16 year old girl, Ateqeh Sahaleh, on charges of un-Islamic behaviour; condemns these and all other Iranian executions of under-age minors, which are in direct contravention of the International Convention on the Rights of the Child, to which Iran is a signatory; notes that as many as 4,000 Iranians have been executed for their homosexuality since the Islamic Revolution in 1979; and calls on Iran to stop its campaign of torture, harassment and ill-treatment against gays and to end all executions of minors.

Signatures by party: Labour 92, Liberal Democrat 26, Conservative 21, Plaid Cymru 3, Scottish National Party 1, Social Democratic and Labour Party 1, UUP 1.