Three people found guilty of rape were executed in public in the Golshahr neighborhood of the Iranian city of Karaj on July 29, 2015, the Young Journalists Club, affiliated with the state-run Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting reported. The individuals were not identified by name.
According to Karaj Prosecutor Haji Reza Shahkarami, who was present at the scene, the death sentences had been approved by Branch 24 of the Supreme Court.
“These three [condemned] individuals had picked up a woman passenger in the wilderness outside of Hashtgerd and sexually assaulted her after stealing her belongings. They were hanged in public this morning after their sentence was approved by the Judiciary,” the Young Journalists Club reported.
According to the report, the alleged incident took place in 2011 and the accused were arrested after the woman made a complaint.
In his March 2015 report Ahmad Shaheed, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on human rights in Iran, described as unprecedented the wave of 1,005 executions in Iran during the previous 14 months.
The alleged reasons for most of the executions did not meet the criteria of “serious crimes” according to international standards, the report noted. Capital punishment for crimes related to drugs (for which the vast majority of executions in Iran are carried out), “immoral” sexual behavior, alcohol consumption, or “corruption on earth” is in violation of international law and many in Iran are on death row for committing these types of crimes, Dr. Shaheed added.
The UN Special Rapporteur also noted that at least 14 of the victims were under the age of 18 at the times the crimes were committed. In addition, the UN and international human rights organizations have decried the fact that executions are often carried out following prosecutions that lacked any semblance of due process.
In a statement on July 23, 2015, Amnesty International also condemned the execution of 694 people between January 1 and July 15 of this year.
