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Iranian authorities hanged two men in public in the central province of Markazi on Monday, state media reported. The men, identified as Yazdan Karimi and Abu-Taleb Mohammadi-Nasb, were hanged in a public square in the city of Arak, the semi-official daily Jomhouri Islami reported in its Tuesday edition.Also on Saturday, authorities executed a man, identified as Reza Sharifi, in the city of Mobarakeh in the central province of Isfahan, the government-run news agency Fars reported.
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The Associated France Press reported that Iran's judiciary said on Tuesday it has sentenced 54 members of the Bahai religious community, whose faith is banned in the Islamic republic, for anti-regime propaganda. "Three Bahais have been sentenced to four years in prison for propaganda against the regime," judiciary spokesman Ali Reza Jamshidi told reporters, adding that 51 received suspended one-year jail terms. He said the suspension of the sentence for the 51 Bahais was conditional on their attendance of courses held by state Islamic Propaganda Organisation. In the past few months, government own newspapers in Iran have criticised what they said was a rise in the activities of Bahais throughout the country, especially in Shiraz. The Islamic republic does not recognise the faith of Bahaism -- which was originally developed in 1863 in Iran -- and it is officially prohibited. Its followers are regarded as infidels and have been persecuted since the 1979 Islamic revolution and also under the deposed shah. Iran's constitution recognises only Christianity, Judaism and Zoroastrianism as minority religions. Bahais consider Bahaullah born in 1817 the last prophet sent by God to the earth, while Muslims believe the last messenger of God is the Prophet Mohammed. Bahaullah was banished and lived 40 years in exile. He died in 1892 and was buried in the Holy Land, close to what is now the northern Israeli port of Haifa.
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Five men were hanged in Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison, state media reported on Thursday Jan. 31th. The men, identified only by their first names Faraz, Mohammad, Mohammad, Mohsen, and Ramezan, were hanged on Wednesday, the official state daily ‘Iran’ wrote. They were accused of murder.
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A young Iranian man is facing execution after a court judged him a 'hardened and incorrigible drinker," Iranian daily Etemad Melli reported. A section of Tehran's criminal court is currently deciding whether the 22-year-old man, known as Mohsen, should be executed. Mohsen was arrested after allegedly being caught for the fourth time in possession of alcohol and in a state of drunkenness. He has already been sentenced to a flogging. Article 179 of Iran's penal code punishes with the death sentence anyone caught drinking alcohol more than three times."Under Iran's new computerised systems, re-offenders have no chance of escape," prosecutor Jalil Jalili was quoted as saying. He has requested the death penalty for Mohsen. Iran is one of the countries carrying out the highest number of executions annually. At least 177 people were executed in 2006, according to campaign group Amnesty International's annual report for 2007. These included one minor and at least three others who were under 18 at the time of the alleged offence, Amnesty said. Methods of execution in Iran include hanging, stoning, throwing off a cliff.
