Three drug traffickers, rapist hanged in Iran
Updated: Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Photographer: WashingtonTV
Executions
14:20GMT—9:20AM/EST
Washington, 18 November (WashingtonTV)—Two men and a women convicted of drug trafficking and a man convicted of rape and robbery have been hanged in Iran, local media reported on Wednesday.
The Kayhan newspaper said that the three convicted drug traffickers were hanged on Monday in a prison in the central city of Esfahan.
The report identified the men as Vahid Sh., 35 and Rasoul T., and the woman as Beygum P.
Meanwhile, the semi-official ISNA news agency said that an unidentified 23-year-old man convicted of rape and robbery was hanged in the city of Bojnourd, in the northeastern province of North Khorasan.
The report said that the man had posed as a water company official and entered 14 homes in the city, and had committed rape on at least one occasion.
The latest hangings bring to at least 255 the number of people executed in Iran so far this year, according to an AFP count.
According to Amnesty International, Iran executed at least 346 people in 2008, second only to China, although its population is 18 times smaller.
Murder, rape, armed robbery, drug trafficking, adultery and apostasy are all punishable by death in the Islamic Republic.
Sources: Kayhan newspaper, ISNA, Agence France-Presse
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