Iran Hangs 29 People At Dawn

TEHRAN, Iran — Iran hanged 29 people at dawn on Sunday after they had been convicted of murder, drug trafficking and other crimes, state run television reported.

All were hanged inside Evin prison, north of the capital. The hangings were carried out after the death sentences were ratified by Iran's Supreme Court, the television report said.

A separate report on the television station's web site quoted Tehran Chief Prosecutor Saeed Mortazavi as saying the men had records of repeated crimes, including rape, armed robbery and murder. The web site also said some of the convicts had "smuggled thousands of kilograms of various kinds of narcotics" in and out of Iran.

The hangings brought to about 150 the number of people executed in Iran so far this year.

International human rights groups have accused Iran of making excessive use of the death penalty, but Iranian officials say capital punishment is an effective deterrent carried out only after all judicial proceedings are exhausted.

The Rome-based Hands Off Cain, which campaigns to stop the death penalty, said last week that at least 355 people were put to death in Iran last year, compared with 215 in 2006. The group said the actual figure may be even higher because Iran does not publish official statistics on the number of executions.

The 355 executions placed Iran second only to China as the world's biggest executioner.

The group said China alone accounted for at least 5,000 executions based on reports by the media and other human rights groups.

Iranian rights activists said earlier this month that authorities have sentenced eight women and one man convicted of adultery to death by stoning.

Comments

[RibEye]

There is a big point many are missing with regards to execusions in Iran. Criminals put aside, many policital activists and journalists are executed, dissident leaders and labor union activists. Many of which just disapear, the state claims no knowledge of their existance. We don't hear about that. Many of the people are convicted of acting against national security. Ofcourse it would be foolish to think outside threats don't have an effect of this rate, they shoot it to the sky.

As for murderers, good. Drug trafficers, face it the islamic republic is heavily invovled in drugs. They acutally facilitate and keep the street price low in Iran. To keep the young generation in the dark.

Stoning, no question about that. However there will be a counter effect. This act being another fang of islam forced on the Persian people will do the following. As Iranians are not Arab and are IndoEuropeans with a rich pre-islamic history. And islam being somthing which was forced on them. There will be as there is now, an anti-islamic movement in Iran. There are teenagers burning the quran in Iran and going back to their Zoroastrian roots.
The forcing of extreme religion will create the opposite, especially in this case.

[AnIranian]

Stop Executions in Iran

Islamic Iran is making excessive use of the death penalty to spread fear among people mostly dissidents and activists. Although Iranian officials insist death penalty is an effective deterrent but in fact experience in past 29 years proved that death penalty is not an effective way to prevent crimes.

Also Iran officials claim that death penalty is carried out only after an exhaustive judicial process which doesn't have any meaning while suspect doesn't go through a fair trial. Police force in Iran torture suspects to confess to crime whether they have done it or not and their confession under torture is a main argument that judges take into consideration to sentence suspects to death. Sadly most of judges are illiterate and they don't have any knowledge about law but sharia. They do careless about suspect rights from the beginning of trial to the end.

Under above circumstances all of these sentences are against international laws and Iran is in violation of them. (International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights)

We urge Islamic Republic of Iran's officials bring an immediate end to these executions.


http://stop.torturing.us/2008/07/stop-executions.html

[RightWingMarine]

If only Texas executed our inmates at that rate.

I fully support the execution of murderers and drug traffickers. The dead don't break laws. Who cares if it doesn't deter others especially if as others have posted these criminals will murder and import drugs regardless of the punishment.

I don't believe we should execute for rape or sexual assault because that would only encourage the rapist to murder the victim. Obviously the sentence should be carried out in a manner such as lethal injection, stoning is senslessly barbaric.

[hartkid]

simpleton logic. i guess rapists facing 40 to life for aggravated sexual assault will let the victim live? Killing the rape victim sometimes makes it more likely that the the rapist will be caught. Lots of rape victims that are left alive do not report the rape.

Executing drug traffickers? Are you serious? This country is chock full of recreational drug users. Likewise, because of simpleton knee jerk policies to be "tough on crime" and laughably, "to win" the war on drugs, most states have incredibly low quantity requirements for prosecutors to charge with intent to deliver. Who all you want to kill, there RWM? Maybe you could buy a back hoe and start a business digging and covering mass graves. Hooray for the nanny/execution state! We can be even better than China and Iran someday!

[GZLives]

A statement from the Campaign for Human Rights in Iran called executions of juveniles barbaric and tragic - saying Iran now accounts for two thirds of the under age executions in the world.

Iran is a signatory to international agreements such as the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child which outlaw juvenile executions.

One human rights group says it knows of at least 106 offenders on death row in Iran who were juveniles when they committed their crimes.

[XCITIZEN]

Either that or they were hanged because they were homosexual...a common reason for execution in Iran...

[AzRealProgressive]

Yes it is. Where is the outrage ???

[missmarple]

Texas just spaces theirs further apart than Iran.

[tippy33]

That's a lot of people to execute at one time but who are we Americans to judge because I believe the U.S.A. that's right us Americans still hold the record for the largest mass hanging in recorded history. On the day after Christmas (1862) President Abraham lincoln the (Great Emancipator) ordered the simultaneous hanging of 38 Souix Indians to drive home a bigger message (Get off of our land). it was all political and had nothing to do with criminal offenses. Unless you want to consider the actions of the U.S. goverment criminal. Just food for thought.

[OneWoman]

Thanks for sharing. I wasnt aware of that event.

Executing drug traffickers caught my eye. Opium and heroin are in full production next door. Perhaps Iran is sending a political message: don't bring that stuff here.

[AzRealProgressive]

Turkey routinely executes drug dealers. Has for years. Movies have been made about it.

[NL207]

Hogwash.

Lincoln ordered nothing. These people were tried for crimes committed during the course of Indian raids, including child murders and scalping. By your reckeoning, thse must have been political child murders and politcal scalpings.

"The Military Commission, which organized, as stated in the order creating it, "to try summarily the mulatto, mixed bloods, and Indians engaged in Sioux raids and massacres," consisted at first of Colonel Crooks, Lieutenant Colonel Marshall, Captains Grant and Bailey, and Lieutenant Olin"

But Lincoln DID commute the esentences of 265 other Sioux sentenced to hang:
"Only the unpopular intervention of President Lincoln saved 265 other Dakota from the fate met by the less fortunate thirty-eight."
source: http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/dakota/dakota.html

It amazes me how many of the weak minded are taken in by drivel like yours.

[AzRealProgressive]

Totally wrong. The Austrians hold a dubious record for that when they invaded Serbia in WW1. The Nazis hung people in Belgrade and othe countries by the thousands. Then they simply shot them.

Hope I helped clear that up for you.

[Amennyc]

Great! The USA and Iran have something in common. Maybe they can now be friends.

[Destin]

What's the point of this story in the mainstream media?? They don't do anything any different than the USA, so the US media can't exactly claim any moral ground. Nor can most of the mega-churches, like Dobbs and Hagee for example, who are pro-death penalty. ;)

[AzRealProgressive]

No one is executed in the USA for drug smuggling or armed robbery.The difference in the criminal justice systems, philosophy and laws are so vast as to be nearly incomparable.

Maybe you missed the part about the stoning of people accused of adultery. How is that the same as the US? And Iran has no homosexuals, their president said so at Columbia university. Wonder what happened to them?

[Destin]

Anyone who willing does illicit drugs, in my opinion, should just go ahead and consider their life over. All it does is lead to addiction, and destroys their lives and destroys any family they have, plus it leads to lots of criminal behaviour since lots of addicts have a hard time holding down jobs, so they turn to stealing, or fraud, or armed robbery knocking off the corner stores. And in desperation, alot of people end up hurt or dead.

And I'm sure Iranian were born like us Americans, with something called "free will". Meaning, just like they have the ability to love who they want, they can choose to live where they want. Why would someone who is gay, wanna live somewhere where they know they'll be killed? It's as stupid as sending our troops to the one region where Americans are hated most. That's why they are being killed.

And how do you propose we fix all the world's problems? Remake the world in our image?? There's one big problem with that. God wouldn't allow us, since he made it in HIS image. ;)

[FearlessFreep]

In Georgia, I believe there was a murder trial where the prosecution had a weak case, but they pointed out that the defendant had a sodomy conviction on his record. (This was long before the Supreme Court declared laws against sodomy unconstitutional.) That turned the small-town jury against the defendant, and he was convicted and ultimately executed.

In the US people have been executed for being homosexual.

[ClarenceDux]

"And Iran has no homosexuals, their president said so at Columbia university. Wonder what happened to them?"

Wrong. This is one of the most popular mistranslations people like to throw around the Internet--almost as popular as Ahmadinejad's "threat" to "wipe Israel off the map." One is a mistranslation, the other is a misunderstanding of the context of the statement. Ahmadinejad is a bad guy, and the Iran situation is troublesome, but let's stop this kind of meaningless rhetoric.

[Huffyfan]

Im very surprised at the western Media . this thing happens all the time in Saudi Arabia but we never get to hear or read about it . does the western Media protect Human abuses in saudi ? Just wondering . Amnesty international has terrible reports about saudi (recent abuse at Maids ) but the Media in the US simply ignores them .

[JADE2002]

exactly, it is called corporate media huffyfan and thank you for pointing it out.

[KaluMa]

Um... and what is the difference between them and us. Death by electrocution, gas, and even hanging is still legal in Missouri. It is all cruel and unusual.

[AzRealProgressive]

Stoning adulterers come to mind. Then again people here may believe that is legal in Texas.

[JoeLosFeliz]

Sounds like Texas.

[divinemauler]

Capital punishment is loathesome, but we here in the United States can hardly criticize others for this uncivilized behavior. We're guilty as hell! So let's just shut our pieholes until we straighten out our own judicial system.

[mamacat]

One more reason to wonder why the U.S. and Iran can't get along - they have so much in common.

[Rivcuban]

LOL! So true!

[chronic]

OK so whats the difference in Iran and America again?

[RumiSouth]

Um... They're godless heathens and we're civilized barbarians. I think.

[AzRealProgressive]

They have no homosexuals. So says the Iranian president. They stone adulterers, the country is run by mullahs who dictate every detail of life, Other than that? Absolutely nothing.