IRAN HANGS FIVE CONVICTS IN PUBLIC

hooded and handcuffed, the condemned men 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.
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 at sunrise on Sunday 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.
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.
Karbalai and Aghanarian, members of a gang of six men dubbed the "Black Vultures" by police, kidnapped, robbed and raped women of all ages in the wealthy districts of northern Tehran.
Three other members of the gang – identified by IRNA as Amir Fakhri, Payam Amini and Majid Qasemi and aged between 20 and 26 - who reportedly met in prison, were hanged across the other side of the city of 12 million people on Sunday. The sixth was given a 20-year prison sentence.
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.Instead, there was a general sense of relief and justice.
"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.
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."