IRAN: Several thousand Iranians cheered yesterday as a man convicted of murdering at least 20 people, most of them children, was publicly executed in a town square.
As relatives of the victims looked on, court officials took turns to administer 100 lashes to Muhammad Bijeh's bare back, leaving it raw and bloodied, before hanging him from a rope attached to a crane.
Spectators chanted "Marg bar Bijeh!" (death to Bijeh) as the 24-year-old former brick worker was hoisted high above the run-down town of Pakdasht, about 30km southeast of Tehran.
Bijeh's hanging was the final act in a case which had transfixed the country.
Nicknamed the "Tehran desert vampire" by Iran's media, Bijeh was convicted of killing 17 children and three adults after apparently confessing to the authorities.
As Bijeh's body writhed in mid-air yesterday, Ali Khosravi screamed the name of his son Kavon (12), murdered with two of his friends after being abducted outside the family home.
"This is my happiest day. It makes up for the day my son was killed," said Mr Khosravi.
"My boy and his two friends were playing tag outside the house when Bijeh tricked them into going with him by using some story about hunting for animals. He took them into the desert and killed them. We never recovered Kavon's body. All we got were some bones."
Public executions are rare in Iran except as punishment for heinous crimes which have triggered public outrage.
The government justifies them as setting an example to the population. They are never used in cases where capital punishment has been imposed for political crimes or in sentences against women.
According to press reports, Bijeh's victims were sexually abused and killed. An accomplice, Ali Baghi, was sentenced to 15 years in prison for his role in the crimes.
The police's investigation into the murders, which occurred over the course of more than a year, has been criticised, with a number of officers suspended for incompetence.
Several victims came from poor Afghan refugee families who were afraid to report their children missing for fear that they would be expelled from Iran.
Bijeh's public execution was in sharp contrast to his trial, which was held behind closed doors, a measure the authorities said was justified to spare the victims' families further pain. - (Guardian service)