Reza was released on Wednesday and greeted into the embrace of his emotional family. The Alinejad family spoke to SCE President Nazanin Afshin-Jam shortly after his release to thank the team for all efforts to help save Reza. They expressed how overjoyed they are to see Reza home but were also stressed about their new financial debt. They had to mortgage their home and borrow a large sum of money at a high interest rate to secure the diyeh (blood money) to the family of the victim. The amount cannot be disclosed at this time. Reza maintains his innocence and says that the death of Esmail Dooroodi was as a result of defending himself against him and the other attacker Mohammad Firouzi. More details about the attack can be found here: http://scenews.blog.com/4061368/

For more details, photos and video about Reza Alinejad's release check back here on SCE's news blog in the next couple of days
http://scenews.blog.com/

Reza's case was one of the very first files that we at SCE took on after Nazanin Fatehi and Delara Darabi. In her February 2007 speaking tour, Nazanin Afshin-Jam received an email titled "VERY URGENT" from an unknown sender named Ali Alinejad. She was shocked to learn from Ali that his brother Reza had been imprisoned for 5 years and was now facing imminent execution for a murder he claims he committed in self-defense when he was 17 years old. Nazanin had not heard of this case and it was not reported with Amnesty International. She immediately forwarded the message to lawyer Mr. Mostafaei to see if he could help in any way. After reviewing the file, Mr. Mostafaei agreed to take on Reza's case and he sent Nazanin a letter that he had written to Ayatollah Shahroudi, head of judiciary of the Islamic Republic of Iran, asking for an appeal and re-trial. Nazanin also wrote a a letter to the Deputy Director of the New York Office of the United Nation High Commissioner for Human Rights, stating her concern about Reza's imminent sentence of execution which was planned to be carried out within a month. Nazanin was assured by Mr. Craig Mokhiber that the file was directed to the appropriate UN human rights mechanisms for further action. Shortly after, Amnesty International issued an urgent action call to save Reza. Nazanin stayed in direct contact with Reza's mother, brother and his attorney and reported all updates on the SCE's website: http://scenews.blog.com/reza%20alinejad/?page=1#cmts

We at SCE are very happy to see Reza get a second chance at life. We wish to congratulate Reza's family who worked so hard and also for having signed the SCE petition. Special thanks to the family of the victim for their compassion and to all those who worked hard to obtain Reza's freedom especially attorney Mohammad Mostafaei for his continuous dedicated hard work. Also a word of thanks to the SCE team, Supporters and all those who helped bring awareness to Reza Alinejad's fate.

Another life is saved and we still have many others to help: www.stopchildexecutions.com/scedata.aspx

Sign the petition to stop child executions and get the word out here:
www.stopchildexecutions.com