Delivering justice, Iran style

JUDGEMENT DAY: Hossein Kavousifar is prepared for execution. Picture: GETTY IMAGES

Delivering justice, Iran

ALAN YOUNG

FOR the huge crowds who gathered in the Tehran sunshine, it was clearly a spectacle not to be missed.

Armed with cameras and camcorders, men, women and children jostled for position behind security barriers, determined to get the best view of the main event.

One of the stars of the "show" appeared, smiling broadly and waving to onlookers. Minutes later he would be dead, left hanging in front of the cheering crowd.

This is the shocking reality of executions in Iran, where public hangings are still a crowd-puller.

A news agency photographer was given a rare opportunity to capture the scenes as two more condemned men met their fate.

The pair were among a batch of nine criminals hanged yesterday - sentenced to death for rape, armed robbery and other crimes. It followed last month's hanging of at least 16 convicted criminals in the Islamic state which, according to Amnesty International, has one of the highest rates of executions in the world - and rising.

Accompanied by masked and heavily armed executioners, Majid Kavousifar, 28 and his cousin Hossein Kavousifar, 24, were brought out to meet the crowds in front of Tehran's Ershad judiciary complex today.

It was there that they shot dead judge Hassan Moghaddas in his car in 2005, and there they would be executed from makeshift gallows fashioned from a crane on the back of a truck.

Onlookers in the street and on the roofs of houses chanted and took pictures with mobile phones as the execution approached. Some laughed.

Kavousifar - who apparently committed the crime believing the judge was corrupt - smiled and waved goodbye. His cousin was in tears.

The tearful mother of one of the killers shouted: "God, please give me back my son."

Moments later, as chairs were kicked from under them, the spectacle was complete.

Dozens of people have been executed in Iran in recent weeks, with most arrested in a crackdown on "immoral behaviour", which began in April.

Western rights groups have called on Iran to abolish the death penalty. Murder, rape, adultery, armed robbery, apostasy and drug smuggling are all punishable by death under Iran's Islamic Sharia law - imposed since the 1979 revolution.

The number of executions doubled to at least 177 last year, according to Amnesty International. Since the beginning of 2007, at least 124 people have been put to death. Other public hangings over the last few days have been broadcast to the nation on TV.

"Implementation of justice equals improving security" read a banner on the gallows above five hanging bodies.