TEHRAN, 3 August 2007 — Two men convicted of murdering an Iranian judge were hanged from cranes in Tehran yesterday, watched by a large crowd which gathered to witness the first public executions in the capital in five years.
Majid Kavousifar and his nephew Hossein Kavousifar were executed to shouts of “God is the Greatest” when their balaclava-wearing hangmen kicked away the wooden stools on which they stood and the ropes sprang taut.
Several thousand onlookers pressed against a cordon of police and iron railings to watch the execution, held at the exact spot where Hassan Moghaddas was murdered in August 2005 in the middle of a busy business district. The two gunmen murdered Moghaddas, who worked at the “guidance” court, which handles sensitive cases of “moral corruption,” when he climbed into his car after work.
Bystanders stared in fascination before the execution got under way at the two blue nooses suspended from five-meter (16 feet) long cranes mounted on the back of two pickup trucks. Tehran’s chief prosecutor Saeed Mortazavi told reporters that Kavousifar had expressed no remorse for the crime and believed he had a right to kill anyone whom he deemed to be “corrupt.”
“People like him should know that their actions cannot and will not dissuade our judges from carrying out their deeds,” Mortazavi warned on the steps of the courthouse. These were believed to be the first hangings in Tehran since September 2002, when a gang of five rapists known as the “Black Vultures” was hanged at two different locations in the city center.
The hangings brought to at least 151 the number of executions carried out in the Islamic republic so far this year, most of them by hanging and often in public. Iran’s critics accuse it of excessive use of the death penalty but officials argue it is an effective deterrent and is only used after an exhaustive legal procedure.
The condemned were pushed outside from the courthouse to the gallows at speed by a half dozen black-clad executioners, jostling through the throngs of assembled local reporters. The curiosity amongst the crowd was intense. Several people climbed to precarious positions on top of the iron railings, much to the exasperation of the police, taking pictures and video with their mobile phones.
The convicts were taken on to the back of the pickup trucks and the bright blue nooses tied around their necks. Meanwhile, an official read out a long list of charges in a booming voice through the loudspeakers. Kavousifar, the mastermind of the murder, showed no remorse, even boldly waving one hand from his handcuffs at his co-conspirator and at the watching crowds.
