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 Iran Executes 21 Year Old Accused Of Gay Sex
When He Was 13
by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff
Posted: December 5, 2007 - 3:00 pm ET
(New York City) The International Gay and Lesbian Human
Rights Commission said Wednesday that a 21 year old man spared from execution
only 10 days ago was hanged this morning.
On November 15 Iran's Chief Justice halted the
execution of Makvan Mouloodzadeh and ordered a new trial.
Mouloodzadeh had been charged with having sex
with another male when the accused was only 13 years old.
The official charge was rape - Iran usually uses
the term rape when arresting a suspect on charges of homosexual sex.
At his original trial no witness ever accused
Mouloodzadeh of rape. Instead, the prosecution witnesses all told the court that
their statements during the investigation were either untruthful or coerced.
Nevertheless Mouloodzadeh was found guilty and
sentenced to death. The Supreme Court upheld his death sentence in August
Chief Justice Ayatollah Seyed Mahmoud Hashemi
Shahrudi in staying the execution described the death sentence to be in
violation of Islamic teachings, the religious decrees of high-ranking Shiite
clerics, and the law of the land. (story)
Shahrudi's ruling sent the case to the Special Supervision Bureau of the Iranian Justice Department, a designated
group of judges who are responsible for reviewing and ordering retrials of
flawed cases flagged by the Iranian Chief Justice.
However, the judges decided to ratify the original court's ruling and
ordered the local authorities to carry out the execution.
Mouloodzadeh was
executed in Kermanshah Central Prison at 5 a.m. Wednesday morning.
Neither Mr. Mouloodzadeh's family or his lawyer were told about the execution
until after it occurred, the International Gay and Lesbian Human
Rights Commission said in a statement.
"This is a shameful and outrageous travesty of justice and international
human rights law," said Paula Ettelbrick, IGLHRC's executive director.
"How many more young Iranians have to die before the international
community takes action?"
Under Islamic law sodomy is a capital crime
punishable by public lashings or hanging.
Some international gay rights groups believe that
more than 4,000 lesbians and gay men have been executed since the Ayatollahs
seized power in 1979. The government in Tehran has repeatedly denied the
reports.
Last month it was learned that during a meeting
between British and Iranian politicians a high ranking Iranian cabinet minister
acknowledged for the first time that the Islamic state upholds the death penalty
for homosexuality. (story)
The disclosure was in marked contrast to remarks
in September by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad during a speech at Columbia
University when he declared there were no homosexuals in Iran. (story)
"In Iran we don't have homosexuals like you
do in your country. We do not have this phenomenon. I don't know who's
told you that we have it," Ahmadinejad said.
©365Gay.com 2007
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