Iran death penalty critic wins human rights award

MADRID (Reuters) - An opponent of the death penalty from Iran has won a prestigious international human rights award, its organisers said on Wednesday.

Emad Baghi, founder of the Society for the Defense of Prisoners' Rights, was selected as laureate of the 2009 Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders.

Baghi's documenting of death row prisoners in Iran, including juvenile offenders, has served as an important resource for United Nations and other rights groups outside the country.

Based in Tehran, Baghi spent the past four years in prison for his campaigning against the death penalty. He was released in August 2008 when prison doctors declared his health in critical condition.

Baghi, who suffers from heart and kidney ailments, is still facing charges related to his work for prisoners' rights. These charges include research that showed Islamic law holds no doctrinal requirement for maintaining capital punishment.

Iran executed at least 346 people in 2008, according to Amnesty International, and has been criticised by rights groups for sentencing juveniles to death and for execution by stoning.

The annual award is named after British lawyer Martin Ennals who was the first secretary-general of Amnesty International. Previous laureates include Akbar Ganji of Iran, Arnold Tsunga of Zimbabwe as well as Chinese dissident Harry Wu.

Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the International Commission of Jurists were among those comprising the jury.