Iran executes gay teenagers

London - 21 July 2005

Two gay teenagers were publicly executed in Iran on 19 July 2005 for the 'crime' of homosexuality.

The youths were hanged in Edalat (Justice) Square in the city of Mashhad, in north east Iran. They were sentenced to death by Court No. 19.

Iran enforces Islamic Sharia law, which dictates the death penalty for gay sex.

Shocking photos of the execution are at the links below http://www.outrage.org.uk/imagezoom.asp?file=37 http://www.outrage.org.uk/imagezoom.asp?file=38 http://www.outrage.org.uk/imagezoom.asp?file=39

One youth was aged 18 and the other was a minor under the age of 18. They were only identified by their initials, M.A. and A.M.

They admitted to having gay sex (probably under torture) but claimed in their defence that most young boys had sex with each other and that they were not aware that homosexuality was punishable by death.

Prior to their execution, the teenagers were held in prison for 14 months and severely beaten with 228 lashes.

Their length of detention suggests that they committed the so-called offences more than a year earlier, when they were possibly around the age of 16.

Ruhollah Rezazadeh, the lawyer of the youngest boy (under 18), had appealed that he was too young to be executed and that the court should take into account his tender age (believed to be 16 or 17). 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 being hunted by the police, but they have gone into hiding and cannot be found. If caught, they will also face execution.

News of the two executions was reported by ISNA (Iranian Students News Agency) on 19 July.

A later news story by Iran In Focus, allegedly based on this original ISNA report, claimed the youths were executed for sexually assaulting a 13 year old boy. But the ISNA report does not mention any sexual assault.

A report of the executions on the website of the respected democratic opposition movement, The National Council of Resistance Of Iran, also makes no reference to a sexual assault.

The allegation of sexual assault may either be a trumped up charge to undermine public sympathy for the youths (a frequent tactic by the Islamist regime in Iran).

Or it may be that the 13 year old was a willing participant but that Iranian law (like UK law) deems that no person of that age is capable of sexual consent and that therefore any sexual contact is automatically deemed in law to be a sex assault.

If the 13 year old was sexually assaulted, why was he not identified and also put on trial (under Iranian law both the victims and perpetrators of sexual crimes are punished)?

Full story in Farsi from ISNA, with three photographs:

http://isna.ir/Main/NewsView.aspx?ID=News-556874

"This is just the latest barbarity by the Islamo-fascists in Iran," said Peter Tatchell of the London-based gay human rights group OutRage!

"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.

"Altogether, an estimated 100,000 Iranians have been put to death over the last 26 years of clerical rule. The victims include women who have sex outside of marriage and political opponents of the Islamist government.

"Last August, a 16 year old girl, Atefeh Rajabi, was hanged for 'acts incompatible with chasity.'

"Britain's Labour government is pursuing friendly relations with this murderous regime, including aid and trade. We urge the international community to treat Iran as a pariah state, break off diplomatic relations, impose trade sanctions and give practical support to the democratic and left opposition inside Iran," said Mr Tatchell.

Urgent action:

Protest to the Iranian Ambassador:

info@iran-embassy.org.uk

Tel: 020 7225 3000 Fax: 020 7589 4440

Iranian Ambassador Embassy of Iran 16 Prince's Gate London SW7 1PT

If you live outside the UK, protest to the Iranian Embassy in your country, and press your government to break off diplomatic relations and impose trade sanctions against Iran.

Email this news release and photos to your friends. Urge them to protest.

END

I was reading this

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3176982.stm

It says across 4 continents. Did they mean Europe as well. I know teachers in catholic schools in scotland who teach pupils that condoms have holes in them. I could name them but I would lose my job in the conservative nhs glasgow. get in touch robbie

I would just like to say thank you for putting right many of the allegations put across by Jim Coleman and his feminist friend on their never ending anti-lap dancing report. What they forget is that it is a choice thing. I was slightly put off about going for a job as a lap dancer which starts on friday because I stupidly read this report about how girls were in debt, how they had to pay a rent and treated badly by the customers etc. It just shows our media is just as much controlled by the government as the US.

Dear Gary, I read your piece in GS about Bishop Devine of Motherwell. I know someone who used to know him well and who says he used to be very liberal. Now he may have changed or may be living in fear of pressures from above. But I do wonder whether another interpretation might fit. Could it be that Devine's remark was *intended* to embarrass the rest of the powers-that-be in the RC Church and to force them to utter the denials they did in fact utter? - that he made a point of saying the very thing he knew the rest of the hierarchy would have to deny? Best wishes and thanks for a great column, Paul

Hi from, Dundee East Independent candidate David Allison

are child molestors gay? NO and its not a sickness of the mind. How can any adult see an innocent as "flirting with them" or "sex".Bring your sick arse to me! I'll happily play with you.Peadophile scum.C'MON IM WAITING AND IM NOT 9 AND VUNRABLE.

To the guy who had been a subject to the deeds of that horrid Dromgoole guy (posted 22 Aug 2004): I can put you in touch with another victim. E-mail me.

Your are the best! I like your website.

i was also brought up in smyllum home and saw alot of abuse by nuns so chrisr like the devil would be wetting his bed to have urine rapped round your head and punched at the same time would give you nightmares .made to eat your dinner for breakfast .wash in cold water and stand in a wash room for hours sometimes all night and then go to shcool for stealing an apple when hungary thats total abuse .get beat when you break your arm or have meassils and ask to see a doctor who fondled the girls and the nuns let all this happen i am skared for life i will never let it kill me or harm my family but deep down it breakes my heart why thay are still getting away with it apologise now rubbish the church needs to recognise our pain our families pain and in some ways whe future pain in letting these nonses hide behind cloth of christ

I read with a chuckle at the ‘pathetic piece of censorship’ your colleague ‘Tivoli’ suffered recently in a local Gay information website. Considering Tivoli artistic flair of ‘cutting and pasting’ from other websites to create his highly plagiarised articles on a monthly basis, ‘Andi’ felt the need to spare us all from a rather tired joke about the Pope which had flooded from the heavens into millions of e-mail inboxes weeks earlier! Tivoli didn’t even try to come up with an original joke. Quelle surprise! The only criticism I have of ‘Andi’s censorship is that he didn’t go that step further and consign the entire Scots Gay article to the waste paper basket where it belonged. After all, there is only room for one Prince Harry on this planet and Tivoli ain’t him! May’s School report for Otton- Must try harder!!