A convicted serial killer who strangled 16 Iranian...

A convicted serial killer who strangled 16 Iranian women with their headscarves was hanged at a prison court in Mashdad, Korashan province. Saeed Hanai confessed to picking up the victims, mostly prostitutes, on the streets of the holy city of Mashhad, luring them back to his home while his wife and three children were away, strangling them and dumping their bodies on waste ground. Hanai, 39, a brick layer by profession, was sent to gallows with 12 murder convictions on his head. The families of four victims had demanded 'blood money', as permitted in the Islamic Shari'ah law, instead of the death sentence. The convict sounded repentant at the gallows, saying he had done wrong by killing the women. He also accepted the death sentence since he had 'killed several people' and that he knew death was the punishment for his actions. As for his victims, he said, "They were polluting the society."The killings were dubbed the "spider murders" because the killer used his victims' headscarves to entangle and suffocate them as a spider weaves a web to trap its prey.The murders met mixed reactions in Mashhad, Iran's holiest city and a centre for Shiite Muslim pilgrimage. They struck fear into many residents, but others in the Islamic Republic proclaimed the women got what they deserved.