The use of the death penalty for crimes committed by people younger than 18 is prohibited under international human rights law, yet some countries still execute child offenders. Such executions are few compared to the total number of executions in the world. Their significance goes beyond their number and calls into question the commitment of the executing states to respect international law.

Since 1990 Amnesty International has documented 90 executions of child offenders in 9 countries: China, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Iran, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, the USA and Yemen. Several of these countries have changed their laws to exclude the practice. Executions of child offenders represent a tiny fraction of the total of executions worldwide recorded by Amnesty International each year. The USA and Iran have each executed more child offenders than the other eight countries combined and Iran has now exceeded the USA’s total since 1990 of 19 child executions.

The first table below gives statistics on executions of child offenders recorded by Amnesty International since 1990. The second table gives case details.

Recorded executions of child offenders since 1990: statistics

Year Recorded executions of child offenders Total recorded executions worldwide Countries carrying out executions of child offenders (numbers of reported executions are shown in parentheses)
1990 2 2029 Iran (1), USA (1)
1991 0 2086
1992 6 1708 Iran (3), Pakistan (1), Saudi Arabia (1), USA (1)
1993 5 1831 USA (4), Yemen (1)
1994 0 2331 —
1995 1 3276 Iran (1)
1996 0 4272 —
1997 2 2607 Nigeria (1), Pakistan (1)
1998 3 2258 USA (3)
1999 2 1813 Iran (1), USA (1)
2000 6 1457 Congo (Democratic Republic) (1), Iran (1), USA (4)
2001 3 3048 Iran (1), Pakistan (1), USA (1)
2002 3 1526 USA (3)
2003 2 1146 China (1), USA (1)
2004 4 3797
China (1), Iran (3)
2005 10 2148 Iran (8), Sudan (2)
2006 5 1591 Iran (4), Pakistan (1)
2007 14 1252 Iran (11), Saudi Arabia (2), Yemen (1)
2008 8 2390 Iran (8)
2009 7 714, excluding China Iran (5), Saudi Arabia (2)
2010 1 527, excluding China Iran (1)
2011 2 676, excluding China Iran (2)
2012 1 682, excluding China Yemen (1)
2013 3 778, excluding China Saudi Arabia (3)

Recorded executions of child offenders since 1990: case details

Country Name of prisoner Age Date of execution

China Zhao Lin 16 at time of offence January 2003
Gao Pan 16 or 17 at time of offence 8 March 2004
Democratic Republic of Congo Kasongo 14 at time of execution 15 January 2000
Iran Kazem Shirafkan 17 at time of execution 1990
Three juveniles One aged 16, two aged 17 at time of execution 29 September 1992
Manuchehr Taherian 16 at time of execution November 1995
Ebrahim Qorbanzadeh 17 at time of execution 24 October 1999
Jassem Ebrahimi 17 at time of execution 14 October 2000
Mehrdad Yousefi 16 at time of offence 29 May 2001
Mohammad Mohammadzadeh 17 at time of offence 25 January 2004
Salman 17 at time of offence 12 May 2004
Atefeh Rajabi Sahaaleh 16 at time of execution 15 August 2004
Iman Farrokhi 17 at time of offence 19 January 2005
Ali Safarpour Rajabi 16 or 17 at time of offence 13 July 2005
Mahmoud Asghari 15 or 16 at time of offence 19 July 2005
Ayaz Marhoni 16 or 17 at time of offence 19 July 2005
Farshid Farighi 14 to 16 at time of offences 1 August 2005
Name unknown 17 at time of execution 23 August 2005
Name unknown 17 at time of offence 12 September 2005
Rostam Tajik 16 at time of offence 10 December 2005
Majid Segound (Sagvand) 17 at time of execution 13 May 2006
Sattar 17 at time of offence September 2006
Morteza M 16 at time of offence 7 November 2006
Naser Batmani under 18 at time of offence December 2006
Mohammad Mousawi 16 at time of offence 22 April 2007
Sa’id Qanabar Zahi 17 at time of execution 27 May 2007
Mohammad Pezhman (Pejman) Under 18 at time of offence 29 May 2007
Amir Asgari Under 18 at time of offence 10 October 2007
Hossein Gharabaghloo 16 at time of offence 17 October 2007
Babak Rahimi 17 at time of execution 17 October 2007
Two juveniles Under 18 at time of offence October 2007
Mohamad Reza Tork 16 at time of offence 15 November 2007
Makwan Moloudzadeh 13 at time of offence 4 December 2007
Amir Hoshang Fazlollahzadeh under 18 at time of offence 31 December 2007
Javad Shojaee 16 at time of offence 26 February 2008
Mohammad Hassanzadeh 16 or 17 at time of execution 10 June 2008
Hasan Mozafari Under 18 at time of offence 22 July 2008
Rahman Shahidi Under 18 at time of offence 22 July 2008
Reza Hejazi 15 at the time of the offence 19 August 2008
Behnam Zare 15 at the time of the offence 26 August 2008
Gholamreza H 17 at the time of the offence 29 October 2008
Ahmad Zare 17 at the time of the offence 30 December 2008
Mola Gol Hassan 17 at the time of the offence 21 January 2009
Delara Darabi 17 at the time of the offence 1 May 2009
Ali Jafari 17 at the time of the offence 20 May 2009
Behnoud Shojaee 17 at the time of the offence 11 October 2009
Mosleh Zamani 17 at the time of the offence 17 December 2009
Mohammad A. 17 at the time of the offence 10 July 2010
Two juveniles, A.N. and H.B. 17 at the time of the offence 20 April 2011
Ali Reza Molla Soltani 17 at time of execution 21 September 2011
Nigeria Chiebore Onuoha 15 at time of offence, 17 at time of execution 31 July 1997
Pakistan One juvenile 17 at time of execution 15 November 1992
Shamun Masih 14 at time of offence 30 September 1997
Ali Sher 13 at time of offence 3 November 2001
Mutabar Khan 16 at time of offence 13 June 2006
Saudi Arabia Sadeq Mal-Allah 17 when sentenced to death 3 September 1992
Dhahian Rakan al-Sibai’I 15 or 16 at time of offence 21 July 2007
Moeid bin Hussein Hakami 16 at time of execution 17 July 2007
Sultan Bin Sulayman Bin Muslim al-Muwallad 17 at the time of the offence 10 May 2009
‘Issa bin Muhammad ‘Umar Muhammad 17 at the time of the offence 10 May 2009
Rizana Nafeek 17 at the time of the offence 9 Januarry 2013
Ali al-Shihri 16 at the time of offence 13 March 2013
Sa’id al-Shahrani 17 at the time of the offence 13 March 2013
Sudan Mohammed Jamal Gesmallah 16 at time of offence 31 August 2005
Imad Ali Abdullah 17 at time of offence 31 August 2005
USA Dalton Prejean 17 at time of offence 18 May 1990
Johnny Garrett 17 at time of offence 11 February 1992
Curtis Harris 17 at time of offence 1 July 1993
Frederick Lashley 17 at time of offence 28 July 1993
Christopher Burger 17 at time of offence 7 December 1993
Ruben Cantu 17 at time of offence 24 August 1993
Joseph John Cannon 17 at time of offence 22 April 1998
Robert Anthony Carter 17 at time of offence 18 May 1998
Dwayne Allen Wright 17 at time of offence 14 October 1998
Sean Sellers 16 at time of offence 4 February 1999
Steve Roach 17 at time of offence 10 January 2000
Chris Thomas 17 at time of offence 13 January 2000
Glen McGinnis 17 at time of offence 25 January 2000
Gary Graham 17 at time of offence 22 June 2000
Gerald Mitchell 17 at time of offence 22 October 2001
Napolean Beazley 17 at time of offence 28 May 2002
T.J. Jones 17 at time of offence 8 August 2002
Toronto Patterson 17 at time of offence 28 August 2002
Scott Allen Hain 17 at time of offence 3 April 2003
Yemen Naseer Munir Nasser al’Kirbi 13 at time of execution 21 July 1993
Adil Muhammad Saif al-Ma’amari 16 at time of offence February 2007
Fuad Ahmed Ali Abdulla Under 18 at the time of the offence 21 January 2012

Amnesty International