Posted on 03/16/2005 10:33:00 PM PST by nickcarraway
PAKDASHT, Iran: An Iranian serial killer convicted of kidnapping and murdering 21 people, most of them little boys, was publicly flogged and hanged south of Tehran on Wednesday before thousands of spectators.
Mohammad Bijeh, branded "the vampire of the desert" in the Iranian press, was lashed 100 times, stabbed in the back by a furious brother of one victim before a blue nylon rope was placed around his neck by the mother of another murdered child.
The 22-year-old killer, who remained calm and kept silent throughout the punishment, was then hauled into the air by a crane to cries from the crowd of "make him twist".
"Dance and think of what you did to our kids," shouted one father, as Bijeh was throttled to death over several minutes. Hanging by a crane does not involve the neck being broken.
Few tears were shed during the hanging. Instead, the crowd vented its rage.
"Hit him harder, the bastard," yelled Ali Khosravi, whose 10-year-old son Kayvan was killed and then burned by Bijeh.
Bijeh also reportedly ate the leg of his one of his victims just to see what it tasted like.
"This is the best day of my life. I would like to strangle him and burn him myself," added Khosravi as stood holding the hand of his eight-year-old daughter Sarah.
Bijeh and his accomplice, Ali Baghi, were arrested in September 2004. Over a period of more than a year, they reportedly lured children into the desert by saying they were going to dig out rabbits or foxes from their burrows.
The pair -- who both worked in a brickworks -- reportedly stunned their victims with blows from a stone, sexually abused them and buried the bodies in shallow graves in the desert south of Tehran.
Both were initially sentenced to hang, but in January the Supreme Court ruled that Baghi should instead serve 15 years behind bars.
The crowd on Wednesday also called for Baghi to be hanged.
"He killed my son. He confessed, he has to be executed," said Ali Dad Azimi, the father of nine-year-old Ahmad.
Before being hanged, Bijeh was stripped of his shirt and stood against a post. His hands were tied around the post and he was lashed by several different plain-clothes officials.
The huge crowd, kept back by barbed wire and around 100 members of the security forces, chanted "harder, harder!".
After around 20 lashes, Bijeh started to buckle from the pain of his bloodied back but was able to redress himself.
When Bijeh was placed in a position to be hanged, a young 17-year-old boy -- the brother of victim Rahim Younessi -- managed to break through the barrier and plant a knife in the killer's back.
The mother of one of young victim Milad Kahani was then invited to place the noose around his neck as he stood there, his hands now tied behind him.
According to the charge sheet read out at the execution, Bijeh was guilty of 21 killings. He had been declared "corrupt on earth" and handed 16 death penalties.
However relatives of the victims here said 26 children were murdered, and vowed the accomplice would also be killed if he ever makes it out of prison.
As the spectacle ended and Bijeh's body was taken away in an ambulance, the crowd, still angry, threw stones at police and soldiers.
The case has drawn huge attention in the Iranian media.
Reports also said the pair picked some of their victims from poor Afghan families who may have been living in Iran illegally, meaning that some disappearances were not reported to police.
One father said his dead son's kidneys were removed, but authorities have insisted that the duo were not involved in organ trafficking.
Local police have also been criticised for failing to quickly apprehend the pair.
Since the start of the year, Iran has executed nine people, according to AFP witnesses and reports in the Iranian press.
Last year, at least 97 people were put to death in Iran. In 2003 and 2002, a total of 108 and 113 executions were carried out, according to figures from human rights organisation Amnesty International.
Murder, armed attacks, rape, apostasy and drug trafficking of more than 5kg are punishable by death in Iran.
It would be more humane to take poor Terri Schiavo (sp?) outside, put a rope around her neck and host it quickly with a crane as was done in Iran.
In Florida, you can kill an innocent human being slowly with the blessing of the legal system, while a nation watches.
Savages? Maybe. On the other hand, public execution tends to have more impact on society when it isn't prettied up by politicians. On the other hand, there is the tendancy to make a show of it. Balancing justice and mercy can't be easy; but, if justice is to be served, the statement made in carrying it out should be impactful, not diminished by shutting the public out. What they did empowered citizens to act out frustrations that might not otherwise be dealt with. The concept of justice here has been largely neutered with psychobabble to the point where the people have become dumb sheep.
One thing's for sure, if you can get the NY Times to run this story for two weeks, the Libs will be demanding that Bush invade Iran LOL.
the point of capital punishment is retribution on the criminal and closure for the victims.
in other words: vengeance.
Anger towards and hatred of those who have done us serious wrong are part of the human condition, and I have yet to see a good reason to deny these factors expression.
What the Iranians did here is good old-fashioned robust justice, and I heartily approve.
No underwear on the head? That would've REALLY showed him what for...
Wow -now thats a verdict.
Somebody said that the problem with the death penalty is that it doesn't really deter the crime it's intended to-- murder. Now, speeding, that's a different matter.
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