Iran's zero tolerance leads to wave of executions

Middle East Features

By Farshid Motahari Aug 3, 2007, 13:13 GMT

Teheran - Hundreds of curious bystanders, including women and children, gathered in the early hours of August 2 in north Tehran to watch the execution of two Iranian men. The two had killed deputy general prosecutor Massoud Moqadas in August 2005 and had also been involved in rape, kidnapping and armed robbery. 'All criminals should be executed in public to deter others,' a police officer at the venue said. 'To assure us women that we can go safely into the streets at night time, there should be zero tolerance for these lawbreakers,' a woman in the crowd said. Zero tolerance has indeed been the motto of both government and judiciary in the last two years. On August 1 nine criminals were hanged in north- and south-eastern Iran. Sixteen, including 12 on one day, were executed last week. Since the beginning of the current year, more than 120 people were executed. According to Amnesty International, there were more than 170 executions last year in Iran. 'For us they are terrorists, as they terrorize society,' prosecutor general Saaid Mortazavi justified the recent wave of executions. The main focus is currently on what police calls 'arazel obash,' violent hooligans and gangs who have spread fear in several cities nationwide. A frequent case has been assaults on people coming out of the banks with large amounts of money. Last year several people were not only robbed but also severely injured by knives and clubs by organized gangs right in front of banks. Tehran police chief General Ahmad-Reza Radan announced on state television that he would put an end to people's fears through a constant and decisive fight against the gangs. Executions were held in Iran even before the 1979 Islamic revolution. Under the current Iranian Islamic law, murder, rape, armed robbery, drug-trafficking of quantities in excess of five kilos and apostasy are punishable by death. Western and human rights groups' critics have so far been ignored in Tehran as the majority of the Iranian people welcome death sentences, having no tolerance as far as murder, rape, child abuse or dealings with hard drugs are concerned and do not believe in psychological therapies for such criminals. What is new however is the frequency of executions in public. Unlike in prisons, in public executions nooses are tied to a crane arm mounted on the back of a truck to allow viewers to have a better view of the incident. The process is more agonizing as the condemned person is not killed instantly. There have been no protests so far to this kind of execution, even by local human rights activists. The West is however concerned that that the latest wave of executions of criminals would expand to political dissidents as well. 'The (Iranian) government also wants to show toughness internally, not only towards criminals but also political critics,' said the director of the German office of Human Rights Watch, Marianne Heuwagen, said on German news channel N24. Such concerns were strengthened after the death verdict against two Iranian-Kurdish journalists in Iran's western Kurdistan province. It is not clear what the two have specifically committed but according to unconfirmed reports, they were not sentenced to death for their journalistic activities but affiliation to the Iran's Kurdistan party which has the same status in Iran as the PKK in Turkey. The government in the recent months has however definitely toughened its approach towards opposition groups guided from abroad, especially from the United States. Symbolic of the new approach are the four US-Iranian citizens who have been charged with espionage and have been either jailed or not allowed to leave the country. Two of them, Haleh Esfandiari from the Wilson centre in Washington and Kian Tajbakhsh from the George Soros institute, told state television last month that they tried to weaken the Islamic system in Iran through a network with Iranian dissidents and intellectuals. Tehran promptly interpreted their remarks as confessions to collaboration with archenemy US and confirmation of their spying charges. © 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur

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CreepyMuslimsAug 3rd, 2007 - 17:27:23

People that like to watch executions give me the creeps.

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Iran is an evil regimeAug 3rd, 2007 - 17:30:55

This is what the Iranians are doing to each other:

www.liveleak.com/view?i=2a0_1185106657

Iran has sentenced two dissident journalists from its ethnic Kurdish minority for being 'enemies of God'.
Rights watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF), says Adnan Hassanpour and Hiva Boutimar were sentenced by a court in the eastern city of Marivan.

The two journalists have 20 days to appeal against their sentences, but if their cases are rejected by the Supreme Court the sentence will be carried out.

Iran has executed over 100 people so far in 2007, most of them by hanging.

news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6925016.stm

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they behave like savage monstersAug 3rd, 2007 - 17:33:18

The Iranian judiciary says a man has been stoned to death for adultery - the first time it has confirmed such an execution in five years.

Jafar Kiani was executed last week in a village in north-west Qazvin province.

Amnesty International said Mr Kiani and Mokarrameh Ebrahimi, 43, were convicted of adultery more than a decade ago.

The human rights group has appealed for Ms Ebrahimi to be spared. Adultery is a capital offence, punishable by stoning, under Iran's Islamic law.
...

Buried to waist

They were sent to Choubin prison, Qazvin, where Ms Ebrahimi is thought to remain with her two children.

Amnesty International UK director Kate Allen said: 'To execute anyone by stoning is barbaric and disgraceful. To execute a woman for adultery in this cruel way simply beggars belief.

'Iran should abolish the sentence of stoning once and for all.'

Under the punishment of stoning, a male convict is buried up to his waist with his hands tied behind his back, while a female offender is buried up to her neck with her hands also buried.

The stoning brings to at least 110 the number of executions carried out in the Islamic republic so far this year, most of them by hanging and often in public.

news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6288156.stm

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and they want atomic bombsAug 3rd, 2007 - 17:39:24

www.liveleak.com/view?i=aea_1185836331

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Georgios OikonomopoulosAug 4th, 2007 - 06:55:06

I absolutely agree with the death penalty if monsters kill rape abuse
children or sell drugs must die

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Hidden ImamAug 4th, 2007 - 16:59:48

'Georgios Oikonomopoulos

I absolutely agree with the death penalty if monsters kill rape abuse
children or sell drugs must die'

In Iran they publicly lynch women fro the 'crime' of being raped. They publicly lynched a 16 year old girl (Atefah Sahaaleh) for the 'crime' of being 'disobedient'.

none of this is about 'justace' it is about the miserable iranian mullahs exerting control through intimidation. Idiots like you Georgios Oikonomopoulos are part of the reason they can get away with it.

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SP4: The only thing missing...Aug 4th, 2007 - 18:40:16

...is a swastika. Next: Incarceration of ethnic jews.

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Dave ThomasAug 5th, 2007 - 16:19:48

Iran allows us to time travel to the Stone Age to see human society before it evolved into civilization.

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why Iranians kill the killers and murderers?Aug 6th, 2007 - 02:29:51

They should let them free, and have them rape more women, and commit more murders, that is the western civilization and ata higher level of humanity...DO NOT KILL...LET THEM COMMIT MORE CRIMES

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LeaveAug 6th, 2007 - 18:23:25

'why Iranians kill the killers and murderers?'

How about journalists? Why do they kill them? How about rape victims? Why do they kill them?

' that is the western civilization and ata higher level of humanity...DO NOT KILL...LET THEM COMMIT MORE CRIMES'

Go back to Iran, you will fit in with the rest of the miserable savages. Simply: Leave the west. You like public hangings and stoning for 'crimes' like 'infidelity' go back to where it is commonplace. It will save us from having to deport you.

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Iran's zero tolerance leads to wave of executions

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