Intimidation, prevention, and punishment
This report comes from Robert Tait, writing in The Guardian's (UK) Sunday Observer.Iran hangs 30 over 'US plots'
"Iran has hanged up to 30 people in the past month amid a clampdown prompted by alleged US-backed plots to topple the regime...
"Many executions have been carried out in public in an apparent bid to create a climate of intimidation while sending out uncompromising signals to the West. Opposition sources say at least three of the dead were political activists, contradicting government insistence that it is targeting 'thugs' and dangerous criminals. The executions have coincided with a crackdown on student activists and academics accused of trying to foment a 'soft revolution' with US support.
"The most high-profile recent executions involved Majid Kavousifar, 28, and his nephew, Hossein Kavousifar, 24, hanged for the murder of a hardline judge... They were hanged from cranes and hoisted high above one of Tehran's busiest thoroughfares...
"Public hangings are normally carried out sparingly in Iran and reserved for cases that have provoked public outrage, such as serial murders or child killings. Human rights organisations say the rising death toll has brought the number of prisoners executed this year to about 150, compared to 177 in 2006, a dramatic increase in capital punishment since the country's radical President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, took office two years ago...
"International gay rights campaigners have also said that homosexual men were among the executed. Homosexuality is a capital offence in Iran, along with adultery, espionage, armed robbery, drug trafficking and apostasy.
"Iran has long been one of the world's most prolific exponents of the death penalty and ranks second only to China in the number of executions... the spate of executions seems likely to continue. Tehran's hardline chief prosecutor, Saeed Mortazavi, has announced that he is seeking the death penalty against 17 'hooligans'."
posted by Ken Wedding @ 7:50 AM
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