In response to the Judiciary’s denial regarding the secret execution of two underage boys on Thursday, May 25 in Shiraz, Iran Human Rights Organization released the birth certificates of the two executed minors.

According to the birth certificates of Mehdi Sohrabifar and Amin Sedaghat, the two were underage at the time of execution, and both under 17 at the time of the supposed crime.

The documents contradict the claims of the spokesman for the judiciary, Gholamhossein Esmaili, who on Tuesday, May 7, stated in a press conference: “They were older than 17, their ages were higher than what it was announced, because younger teenagers are not capable of committing armed robbery and rape and kidnapping.”

The spokesperson for Iran Human Rights Organization said: “If people under 18 and 17 are incapable of committing violent crimes, then why is it that they do not abolish death sentence for people under 18 completely? In the past 5 years, almost 40 minors were executed in Iran, and most of them were between 15 to 18 while committing the crime. Iran has the most child executions in the world.”