The Iranian Lawyer Who Saves Children From The Death Penalty
"The Guardian" has a compelling Persepolis-inspired animation about Mohammad Mostafaei, an Iranian lawyer who has saved 20 out of the 40 juveniles he has defended against the death penalty in Iran.
To mark a new Amnesty report about the rise in executions in the Middle East, the animation tracks Mostafaei's journey into law. He was 14 when he first saw a notice for a public execution. Intrigued, he went to watch, expecting to see a hardened criminal. Instead he saw a trembling young man.
("The Guardian" also has a compelling account of a man who was arrested when he was 16 and spent seven years on death row.)
After that he decided to pursue law and has made a career defending juveniles on death row and women who have been sentenced to death for stoning. A staunch critic of the Iranian judicial system, he left the country in 2010 and sought asylum in Norway.
In 2009, Mohammad Mostafaei co-produced a video for RFE/RL about juvenile executions, where the filmmakers talk to juvenile offenders on death row, as their parents and advocates frantically beg the victims' family for forgiveness.
