Iran: Petty Criminals Sent to the Gallows

Public hanging in Tehran
Jan. 20, 2013

Iran has begun handing down death sentences for robbery – a crime that previously carried much less severe punishments. In socially and politically uncertain times, the regime is increasingly resorting to Draconian measures in the hope that these will serve as a deterrent, reports Stefan Buchen

Reports by international human rights organisations have long informed us of the fact that in Iran, wine drinkers are whipped, adulterers stoned and homosexuals strung up on cranes. Through these punishments, the state manifests its claim on the interpretation of Islamic law. When they read about such castigations and executions in the newspapers or perhaps even witness such punishments in public, the citizens of Iran are reminded that they live in an Islamic Republic.

Tehran has recently begun handing down the death sentence for a crime that previously merited a far less severe punishment: Robbery.

The case of two men in their early 20s publicly executed in a Tehran park in mid-January caused quite a stir at home. The two men had threatened someone with a knife on a Tehran street and run off with a wallet. Subsequent questioning revealed that the total haul did not even amount to 50 Euros. An anonymous photographer took pictures of the execution.

The revolutionary court's justification for this shocking death sentence reads like this: With their act of robbery, the perpetrators are accused of spreading a sense of insecurity and instability in the country in such a way that it threatens the existence of the Islamic Republic as a whole. They have thereby made themselves guilty of "moharebeh", or war against God. After all, says the court, the Islamic Republic is the state that God wanted. And "moharebeh" is punishable by death. This is how it was set out by Khomeini.

The head of the Iranian justice system, Ayatollah Sadeq Amoli-Larijani, makes no secret of the arbitrary nature of the death sentence. "Of course, the deed could be punished in a different way," he said. "But to make it clear to criminal elements that their actions carry a high price, the judiciary has decided on the death sentence (…). The death sentence was imposed as a deterrent."

He was quoted as saying this by the state-run news agency Fars. The state is going on the offensive over the issue. During the trial in late December, television channels screened video footage purporting to be CCTV pictures of the robbery several times. The execution then took place "in public" (Persian: "dar mala'e 'am"). Citizens of Tehran report that huge posters were displayed in the city bearing the words: "Robbery is punishable by death" ("modjazat-e zur-giri e'dam ast").

Click here to read the full article

Source: quantara.de, Feb. 5, 2013