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(London) Two teenagers have been executed after a
religious court found them them guilty of homosexuality according to
pro-Democracy groups.
The Iranian Students News Agency reports that the
executions took place on July 19 in the northeastern city of Mashhad.
One teen, ISNA says was 18, the other was a
minor, believed to be 16 or 17. The organization ran a picture of what it said
was the execution on its Web site. The English
language Iran In Focus also reported the executions, saying the teens were
hanged in public in the city square. It quotes sources as saying the teens were
executed for having sex with another minor but this could not be confirmed. The
report does not name the victim. Under Sharia law the victim of a sexual assault
must also be executed. Both news
services say that prior to their execution, the teenagers were held in prison
for 14 months, severely beaten and given the lash 228 times. A
report of the executions was also carried on the website of the respected
democratic opposition movement, The National Council of Resistance Of Iran. Ruhollah
Rezazadeh, the lawyer for the younger teen reportedly had appealed the death
sentence but the Supreme Court in Tehran ordered him to be hanged. Under
the Iranian penal code, girls as young as nine and boys as young as 15 can be
hanged.
Three other young gay Iranians are reportedly
being hunted by police, but they are said to have gone into hiding and cannot be
found. If caught, they would also face execution.
The British LGBT rights group OutRage has called
for sanctions against Iran. The organization has called for western states to
break off diplomatic relations, impose trade sanctions and treat Iran as "a
pariah state".
"This is just the latest barbarity by the
Islamo-fascists in Iran,” said OutRage spokesperson Peter Tatchell.
"The entire country is a gigantic prison,
with Islamic rule sustained by detention without trial, torture and
state-sanctioned murder.
"According to Iranian human rights
campaigners, over 4,000 lesbians and gay men have been executed since the
Ayatollahs seized power in 1979," said Tatchell.
Iran In Focus reports that members of Iran’s
parliament are applauding the court for carrying out the death sentence on the
teens.
"These individuals were corrupt. Their
sentence was carried out with the approval of the judiciary and it served them
right,” the publication quotes Ali Asgari, a member of the Majlis Party Legal
Affairs Committee.
At least three men have been sentenced over the
past month to death by stoning in Nigeria which also follows Sharia law in
several provinces. (story)
In March a gay couple was beheaded in a public
execution in Saudi Arabia. (story)
The pair had been convicted of killing a blackmailer who had threatened to
expose them to authorities. Hundreds of other gays have been rounded up by
Saudi authorities in recent months. (story)
©365Gay.com 2005
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