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Amnesty International has condemned the execution of an alleged juvenile offender in Iran on Thursday, at least the fifth such execution in 2009.

Mosleh Zamani was hanged at Dizel Abad Prison at 4am, along with four other unidentified prisoners.

He was sentenced to death in 2006 for allegedly raping his girlfriend when he was 17.

"Once again, despite domestic and international calls for the Iranian authorities to uphold their international obligations, they have executed someone who was under 18 at the time of his alleged crime," said Philip Luther, Deputy Director of Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Programme. "How many more will die before Iran stops this dreadful practice?"

Mosleh Zamani’s death brings the number of alleged juvenile offenders executed in Iran since 1990 to at least 46.

Amnesty International was told that 200 people demonstrated outside the prison on Wednesday in protest at the executions.

The organization has called since 2007 for Mosleh Zamani’s death sentence to be overturned.

Iran is a state party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). Both of these prohibit the use of the death penalty against juvenile offenders, people under 18 at the time of the offence of which they have been convicted.

Iran is one of very few countries in the world that still execute juvenile offe... >>>