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Iran Focus
 Tehran, Iran, Aug. 23 – Four young men
between the ages of 17 and 23 were hanged in public in the port city of Bandar Abbas, southern Iran, on Tuesday, according to the
state-owned daily Kayhan.
News of the hanging was posted on the ultra-Islamist daily’s website late
on Tuesday. The four were identified only by their initials. Two of them
received 74 lashes in public before their execution, the daily reported.
All four were accused of sex offences and theft. The daily quoted an
unnamed Justice Ministry official as saying that the reason why young men
were committing so many sex offences was that “they are not aware of the
punishment for their offences under Islamic laws”.
Hours earlier, Kayhan reported that four other
men had been sentenced to death in the southern city of Kerman. Iran’s state-owned newspapers have
reported that 23 persons have been hanged or sentenced to death in the past
month. At least three of them were minors.
The hanging of two gay young men in the city of Mashad last month caused an
international uproar. One of the victims was a minor and the other one was
18 years old.
On July 14, Kayhan reported that a 20-year-old,
called Ali Saffarpour Rajabi, was hanged in
public in the town of Pol Dokhtar, western Iran, charged with killing a
Revolutionary Guards officer when he was 16 years old.
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