IRAN: EXECUTIONS ON THE RISE AMID TIGHTER SECURITY

tighter security measures led to a sharp rise in executions in Iran, according to the international rights group Amnesty International. In its annual report released in London, Amnesty said at least 335 people were executed in Iran in 2007, seven of them children. Amnesty said the number of executions had increased since a security clampdown in April and cruel and inhumane punishment was taking place in Iran. "Sentences of stoning to death, amputation and flogging continued to be passed and carried out," the report said. "At least seven people aged under 18 at the time of the crime were executed (last year) and at least 75 other child offenders remained on death row." The 2008 report highlighted the case of Makwan Moloudzadeh, an Iranian Kurdish child offender, executed in December last year. Amnesty said the execution followed "a grossly flawed trial" for three rapes he allegedly committed at the age of 13, eight years earlier.