TWO YOUTHS TO BE EXECUTED IN IRAN FOR POSSIBLE ‘GAY’ RAPE

unconfirmed reports coming from Iran suggest that two youths are facing a brutal execution in the southern city of Shiraz. According to the Iranian official Quds Daily, two youths, identified as Tayab and Yazdan, had their execution confirmed by the Supreme Court and regional justices are preparing the execution. Four others were charged in the same case and are to receive 100 lashes each. The ages of the two to be executed are not given, but they were convicted, according to Quds, of “kidnapping, mugging and raping two university students”. The gender of the two students is not known. Quds reports that the executions will be carried out by putting each youth in a sack and throwing them off the top of a cliff and into a ravine. This form of execution under Shariah law is normally reserved for those convicted of gay offences (lavat). But there is no mention of ‘lavat’ in the Quds report of this case. If a person survives this execution, then he is hanged.