A man found guilty of murdering his teenage girlfriend when he was a juvenile was hanged in Iran on Wednesday, the country’s Judiciary has announced.

Arman Abdolali, who was 25 at the time of his execution was sentenced to death for the killing of Ghazale Shaker in 2014, but his execution had been postponed on several occasions.

Human rights organizations had repeatedly appealed for the death sentence to be cancelled because of Abdolali’s age at the time of the crime, but Iran’s Sharia-based law recognizes adulthood to be when a person turns adolescent.

Also, according to Islamic law the family of the victim has the last say in carrying out the sentence. If the family forgives the offender, the death penalty cannot be carried out. In this case Shaker’s family did not agree to pardoning Abdolali.

The Iran Human Rights Organization reported earlier this year that the Islamic Republic is the only government in the world that continues to execute people who committed a murder before the age of 18.

Germany's human rights commissioner, Baerbel Kofler, had also appealed to Iran to cancel the execution calling it "unacceptable breach of international law."