May 20, 2011
Pars Daily News: Islamic Republic Judicial authorities say that on Thursday, May 19, four people were hanged in Yazd. Yazd’s Public Prosecutor stated that these four people accused of rape had been condemned to death. Last year about 252 executions took place in Iran. Without disclosing those individuals’ identities, Jamal Ghezavati added that three of the accused were from one of the villages outside Yazd and were publicly hanged, and the other person was executed at the Yazd Central Prison. According to Mr. Ghezavati, these four people in 2009 and 2010 raped women in Meybod, Tabas, and Yazd. The Provincial Criminal Court voted to sentence them to death.
Mehr News: The Esfahan Public Prosecutor at a press conference personally announced that Abdullah and Mohammad Fathi have been executed at Esfahan’s Dastgerd Prison. He also revealed that three other people accused of stealing weapons have been executed. According to Mehr News, at a press conference Mohammad Reza Habibi stated: “The five executed arms robbers had a long and dangerous background. Two of them belonged to a ring of gold dealers.”
In referring to the combatant state of these individuals, Habibi emphasized that, “Published news based on the political aspect of these condemned prisoners and their executions were not accurate. No law refers to the prisoners and their executions as political.” He said that the penalty for stealing weapons is death: “Arms robbers psychologically destroy the people’s morale, and authorities defending human rights must apply the correct penalty for these crimes. Publishers of such news disturb people’s sense of security, and the judicial machine must deal with such individuals.”