Iran hangs seven in public
2007-08-01 15:37
Tehran - Iran hanged in public seven people convicted of rape and kidnapping in its holy second city of Mashhad on Wednesday, the latest execution of criminals arrested in a crackdown on thugs.
The hangings were carried out in two separate locations in Iran's second city in the northeast, on the exact spots where they had committed their crimes, the state-run IRNA agency reported.
Mashhad's chief prosecutor Gholam Hossein Esmaeeli said five criminals were hanged in one of the executions and two in the other.
"The group of five were convicted of rape, kidnapping, theft and committing indecent acts," he said.
"The other two were young males aged 24 and had abducted a woman two years ago where, after stealing her belongings, they raped her," he added.
State television showed the executed convicts - blindfolded and dressed in short-sleeved shirts and tracksuit trousers - hanging limply from the nooses after they died.
"Implementing Justice Equals Elevating Security," read a banner from Mashhad's revolutionary and public prosecution office placed above the gallows.
Hangings stepped up
It appeared that thousands of people had turned out in Mashhad, the home of the shrine of the Shiite Iman Reza, to witness the executions and were kept back by iron fencing and a cordon of police.
All the convicts had been arrested in a recent sweep on "arazel va obash", a Persian phrase that translates loosely as "thugs" and is used to describe rapists, drug-traffickers and criminals guilty of disturbing public security.
Iran has stepped up hangings of such convicts deemed to be a public menace in a clear message that there is no mercy for such criminals.
One week before, 12 convicts arrested in the same crackdown on thugs were hanged simultaneously in Tehran's Evin prison. It is highly unusual in Iran for so many people to be hanged at once.
Tehran chief prosecutor Saeed Mortazavi has said he is looking for execution verdicts for 17 other criminals.
Meanwhile, two convicted bandits were hanged on Wednesday in jail in Zahedan, the provincial capital of the Sistan Baluchestan province which borders Afghanistan and Pakistan
"They were convicted of being enemies of God and propagating immorality on earth by shooting police, which resulted in the martyrdom of two police," a local judiciary spokesperson was quoted as saying by the state broadcasting website.
Prolific applier of the death penalty
The hangings brought to at least 148 the number of executions carried out in the Islamic republic so far this year, most of them by hanging and often in public.
At least 177 people were executed in 2006, according to Amnesty International, making Iran the most prolific applier of the death penalty in the world after China.
Capital offences in Iran include murder, rape, armed robbery, apostasy, blasphemy, serious drug trafficking, pederasty, adultery or prostitution, treason and espionage.