IRAN: MAN HANGED FOR ADULTERY AND HOMOSEXUALITY

October 5, 2009: a man was hanged for adultery and homosexuality, human rights lawyer Mohammad Mostafaei reported. Mostafaei wrote in an open letter that his client Rahim Mohammadi was hanged in the prison of Tabriz (northest of Iran). Neither he nor Mr. Mohammadi’s family had been informed prior to the execution. Mr. Mohammadi’s wife, Kobra Babai, was sentenced to death by stoning for adultery and could be stoned to death in the near future.
The lawyer explained that Rahim Mohammadi and Kobra Babai, married for approximately 16 years and with a 11 year old daughter, were living in conditions of extreme poverty and they were forced to rely on economic assistance from state organisations. Some employees of these organisations allegedly offered further money to the man to have sexual relations with Kobra, and he accepted. The woman was therefore made to prostitute with about forty men, according to public statements by lawyer Mostafai. She was condemned to stoning for this.
In a first trial Mohammadi was only sentenced for adultery, a sentenced that carries execution by stoning. He was then also found guilty of homosexual relations (Lavat) with a neighbour who is a self confessed criminal. This charge carries hanging as the method of execution.
 “We all know that stoning is a sentence which is not easy to carry because it is not practiced in other countries, and because it will lead to unwanted national and international reactions,” Mohammad Mostafaei explained. “In order to carry out the death sentence in an easy manner, the court found him guilty on Lavat charges – charges that he denied and that were retracted by the person who had brought them up.”
Rahim Mohammadi was flogged severely a few days before his execution and was hanged while his body was crushed because of the lashes he had received. (Sources: Human Rights Activists in Iran, 06/10/2009; Ansa, 07/10/2009)