During the first presidency of Ahmadinejad, the problem was particularly severe with juvenile death penalty since more than 130 juvenile offenders were sentenced to death in Iran as of 2008. Moreover, the independent researchers pointed out on the issue of political prisoners whose number increased during Ahmadinejad's first presidency. Other problems with human rights involved the absence of basic protection of LGBT rights as the number of criminal convictions for homosexual sex increased during the period between 2005 and 2009, while the President even denied the existence of gay people in Iran.