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Iran to execute 30 convicts in mass execution
Iran is planning a mass execution of 30 people convicted of murder and drug trafficking, in the biggest such event in recent years, a local newspaper reported on Saturday."Thirty people convicted of murder, drug trafficking, illegal relationships... will be executed on Sunday at dawn," the Aftab newspaper quoted Tehran's prosecutor office as saying. It would be the largest mass execution in the country in recent years. In January, Iran hanged 13 people including the mother of two young children who had been found guilty of murdering her husband. The prosecutor's office said that the verdicts against the 30 people had been approved by "high judicial authorities." It said 20 of those on death row were convicted drug traffickers. The remaining 10, identified as "murderer thugs" were also convicted of "disturbing public security and disorder, beating up people, repeated robberies, having illegal relationships and showing up drunk in public." The location of the planned executions was not given. Hangings often take place inside prisons but can be carried out in public in Iran. In January, Iran's judiciary chief Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahrudi decreed that public executions would only be carried out with his approval and "based on social necessities." Human rights groups have accused Iran of making excessive use of the death penalty but Tehran insists it is an effective deterrent that is carried out only after an exhaustive judicial process. Iran has so far hanged at least 126 in this year, according to an AFP count. Amnesty International reported that in 2007 Iran applied the death penalty more often than any other country apart from China, executing 317 people during the year. Posted by: Fred 2008-07-27 |
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