Iranian beheaded, eight hanged in wave of executions

TEHRAN: An Iranian was beheaded in public and eight others hanged for offences ranging from rape and murder to kidnapping women and homosexuality, press reports and officials said Tuesday.

A man convicted of murdering two fellow Iranians with a Kalashnikov assault rifle, as well as three counts of rape, was beheaded with a sword in the southeastern province of Sistan Baluchestan bordering Pakistan, a press report quoted a judiciary source as saying. The daily Seday-e Edalat did not say precisely when or where the execution took place or identify the accused, but said he had been given five death sentences, three by beheading and two by hanging.

Beheading as a form of capital punishment is rare in Iran, and this was the first case to be reported in years.

In the holy Shiite northeastern city of Mashhad three men convicted of abducting women and girls, rape, homosexual acts, sodomy and fornication were hanged in public Tuesday morning, a judiciary official in the city told AFP, but did not name them.

Another five were hanged in the same spot later Tuesday. The Iran daily said a further 135 were sentenced to heavy prison terms and flogging. Police also arrested 63 women working in eight brothels when the gang was broken up. —AFP

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