Iran hangs Tabriz man after 19 years in jail
Published: Monday, August 25, 2008
14:55GMT—10:55AM/EST
IRAN – EXECUTION
Washington, 25 August (IranVNC)—A man convicted of the rape and murder of his sister-in-law 19 years ago was hanged today in prison in Iran’s northwestern city of Tabriz, the conservative E'temaad daily reports.
The man, identified as Bahram, was convicted of the crime and imprisoned in the fall of 1989, and in accordance with the wishes of the victim’s blood-relatives, he was sentenced to death.
Today’s hanging brings the number of executions in Iran to at least 174, according to an AFP count.
Under Iran’s penal code, murder, rape, drug trafficking and armed robbery, are among the crimes punishable by death.
Iran has received widespread international condemnation for its high use of the death penalty. According to Amnesty International, 317 individuals were executed in the country last year, second only to China.
Sources: Etemaad Newspaper in Persian, Agence France-Presse
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