Five members of a band convicted of several cases of...

Five members of a band convicted of several cases of rape were hanged in two separate public sites in east and west Tehran at dawn. Hooded and handcuffed, the condemned "Black Vultures" gang members were led by police to the back of two waiting tow trucks, a Reuters report from one of the execution sites in Tehran's Azadi (Freedom) square said. They had previously been convicted of kidnapping, extortion and drinking alcohol by the Tehran Criminal Judicial Complex, the official Iranian news agency IRNA reported.
Unmasked, Amir Karbalai and Farhad Aghanarian, took one long look at each other as the nooses were placed around their necks, then stared out over the heads of the hushed crowd of several hundred gathered to see their hanging at a vacant bus terminal in the Iranian capital.
Simultaneously, the tow trucks' hydraulic arms rose. The green nylon ropes tightened and the convicted rapists' bare feet dangled above the ground. Seconds later they were motionless, their heads lolled to one side.
Three other members of the gang were hanged across the other side of the city of 12 million people on the same day. They were identified by IRNA as Amir Fakhri, Payam Amini and Majid Qasemi, aged between 20 and 26. They reportedly met in prison. A sixth gang member was given a 20-year prison sentence. Payam Amini asked for the crowd in the Iranian capital for forgiveness.
'True, we are guilty but we didn't kill anybody,' he said. 'We do not deserve to die.'
Moments later, the tow-truck crane from which he would be hanged rose with an hydraulic hiss.
Their crimes were so notorious that there were no last-minute calls for clemency, no protests by those opposed to the death penalty, as has occurred at some recent hangings.
"I feel relieved when I see this," said one young woman, who had travelled from Shahroud province, some 125 miles (200 km) away to witness the executions. "It's good for the men to see it too, so that they stop harassing women."
"People are sick and tired of these kind of people and when they see them on top of those cranes it's a lesson to others who may be planning such crimes," said Abraham, a student who knew the family of one of the victims.
As the two men's lifeless bodies swayed in the first light, a ripple of applause spread through the crowd. Some threw coins towards the tow trucks - a token gesture towards paying for their burials. The bodies were left hanging for at least half an hour. The mother of one gang member fainted twice as she watched him hang and cried out that it was unjust.
Before lowering them to the ground a court official raised the men's shirts to show the red marks across their backs where they had been lashed.
"Of course it's sad to see someone die," said one man, 70, who declined to give his name. "But it's a good lesson to outlaws. If one person in 100 learns from this, it's worth it."
Reformists allied to moderate President Mohammad Khatami have publicly criticised the practice, but conservative hardliners, who run the country's courts and security forces, argue it serves as a deterrent to other criminals and should be applied in certain cases.