NICOSIA (AFP) – The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights urged Iran on Thursday to halt the execution of a woman convicted of murdering her husband when she was a child bride.

Navi Pillay also called on the Islamic republic to impose a moratorium on the death penalty in view of abolishing it altogether.

Razieh Ebrahimi, now 21, was forced to marry her husband at the age of 14 and gave birth just a year later, Mehr news agency cited her lawyer as saying.

At the age of 17, and after being subjected to domestic violence, she killed her husband and was later found guilty of murder, said the lawyer, who was not identified.