Posted on 02/12/2008 7:55:44 AM PST by knighthawk
Early morning in Tehran, and two mobile cranes are being manoeuvred into place. They are to act as temporary gallows for a public execution.
Already the crowd are out in force, some of them in a remarkably cheery mood. A few are getting ready to photograph the scene on their mobile phones. There are even one or two young children around.
Amid this strangely everyday scene, the black-masked hangmen begin their work. They attach nooses to the cranes, check they are secure.
As the sentence is read out, the two criminals are brought out.
They have been convicted of bank robberies and murders, including the murder of a senior judge, close to this very spot in Tehran.
But there is no sign of remorse. In fact, one of the two men can't stop smiling, even as the noose is put around his neck. Then swiftly the stool is pulled from under their legs.
The bodies are left dangling - a lesson for everyone to see.
'Executions necessary'
Under the government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the number of executions has increased dramatically.
Amnesty International says the figures are up from 200 executions in 2006 to about 300 last year, and there have been more than 30 in the first month of this year alone.
The Iranian government says the executions are necessary to deter hardened criminals - murderers, drug dealers and rapists.
Ayatollah Mahdi Hadavi, a professor of Islamic law based in the holy city of Qom, explained this interpretation of Islam.
"In Islam, punishment is very harsh," he said. "Because the philosophy of punishment is to prevent the people from committing a crime."
In future that may include fewer public executions. The most recent was held in January.
But now Iran's chief judge has ordered that none should be held without his personal authorisation.
However, a similar edict stopping the punishment of stoning to death does not seem to have been obeyed.
Legs amputated
One man was stoned to death in Iran last year, after being convicted of adultery.
Human rights groups say two sisters, Zohreh and Azar Kabiri, now face the same penalty, after they were also convicted of adultery. Both are mothers, each with one child.
To add to this challenging list of punishments, the Iranian Nobel peace prize winner and human rights lawyer, Shirin Ebadi, has warned of a revival of the practice of amputation.
She said that several criminals in the remote province of Sistan-Baluchistan had recently had hands and legs amputated.
The violation of human rights in Iran had found new dimensions, warned the group of lawyers that she heads.
Ms Ebadi says she believes that there is a political dimension to the growing number of executions: "I see this as way of putting fear into society. They want to use this to frighten people, to make people afraid of voicing criticism."
Western liberals
It's not a charge that's likely to concern President Ahmadinejad.
His government has turned to a strict interpretation of Islam as a way of reviving the revolution and controlling the population.
It's hard to say how many people in Iran support these policies, though they are certainly more popular with Mr Ahmadinejad's poorer, more conservative, rural supporters.
On this 29th anniversary of the Islamic revolution, the government of the Islamic republic is prouder than ever of its difference from Western liberal countries.
It thrives on a confrontation with the West, not just on matters of foreign policy, but on basic questions of religious and social values.
Nowhere are these differences more stark than in Iran's increasingly tough attitude to crime and punishment.
Public hanging used to be a common form of execution in the United States. During our more “enlightened” times, crime has erupted and the criminals have more contempt for the law now than ever. If public hanging would deter even a few potential murderers, it would be justifiable again; how much is a single innocent life worth saving? Criminals should quake before the law.
I am all for more expedient trials and executions, for crimes.
However, I wonder how many over there are executed because they questioned a Mullah’s interpretation of a religious dictum, or the sanity of their leaders.
“Ms Ebadi says she believes that there is a political dimension to the growing number of executions: “I see this as way of putting fear into society. They want to use this to frighten people, to make people afraid of voicing criticism.” “
The muzzies have been using these techniques to achieve this very end for over 1400 years. Absent a moral uprising within their own ranks and founded (or, at least rationalized) in their own brainwashed principles, they have no reason to abandon the greastest spectator sports of the seventh century just because some kafir, some infidel, thinks they should.
Islam is a cult. It needs to be eradicated.
Lock and Load.
I wonder how many over there are executed because they questioned a Mullah’s interpretation of a religious dictum, or the sanity of their leaders.
But you have a valid question.....
IT WENT THROUGH THEIR JUDICIAL SYSTEM. PROPERLY DONE, HANGING IS AS HUMANE AS ANYTHING AND MIGHT PROVIDE MORE JUSTICE TO THE PERP. MANY HAVE POSTED HERE THAT PERPS AREN’T HUMANE TO THEIR VICTIMS AND SHOULD EXPERIENCE SOME TERROR.
Executions are carried out away from the public eye, with only a few observers present as required by law.
THERE IS AN ARGUEMENT FOR PUBLIC EXECUTIONS. IT MIGHT DETER A FEW INDIVIDUALS AND MAKE IT MORE REAL FOR THE REST OF US.
The death penalty is reserved only for the most heinous of crimes in the U.S.
THE TWO EXECUTED IN THE ARTICLE COMMITTED ROBBERY AND MURDER
It literally takes decades to execute a convict in this country and millions of taxpayer dollars are spent on the defense of the condemned.
OUR LEGAL SYSTEM CALLS FOR SWIFT JUSTICE. TOO MUCH TIME BETWEEN ACTIONS AND CONSEQUENCES CREATS A DISCONNECT
These barbarians observe no such customs. Condemned persons, including children btw, are hauled by the neck off the ground by cranes and left to strangle. This is done quite publicly with the sole aim of terrifying the population into submission to a gang of 7th Century islamofascist scum.
CAN’T ARGUE WITH THIS BUT IT IS BEYOND THE FACTS OF THE ARTICLE. SOME WOULD PRESENT THAT THIS EXACT THING HAS HAPPENED IN OUR PAST AND IS HAPPENING NOW
Comparing our legal system to theirs is a rude joke.
JUST TRYING TO POINT OUT THERE IS NO PERFECT SYSTEM. RECOGNIZING IMPERFECTION IS A CONVERVATIVE POSITION.
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