Five people, included a woman, involved in a "ring...

Five people, included a woman, involved in a "ring of drug-traffickers" in Tehran's Khak-e Sefid District, were executed in public after being sentenced to death the day before by Branch 27 of Tehran's Islamic Revolution Court.
Ali Alipur was executed for heroin addiction and preparation and distribution of tens of kilograms of the substance for years. Ali Kazem Aslani for heroin addiction and the distribution and procurement of more than 2 kg of the substance. Ebrahim Qa'ed Shahri and Fariba Tajiani Emamqoli were sentenced for extensive drug trade and Farman Qahremani Azar for preparation and distribution of more than one kg of heroin.
Fariba Tajiani-Emamqoli, 30, blindfolded and with her hands tied, implored pardon from the judges but her appeal was ignored and she was hanged from one of five cranes set up in the eastern Khak-e Sefid district.
The whole process took 25 minutes, with the bodies being left for 10 minutes before being taken down. The district was sealed off hours before the hangings were due to take place, and senior police officers were in attendance. Some 500 people, screaming "death to dealers", watched from nearby, while other spectators gathered on the roofs of houses.
The five were among the 500 women and men arrested on drug charges ranging from addiction to trafficking, on February 22, during an operation in the Khak-e Sefid area, the centre for the distribution of 75 per cent of narcotics in the capital and other cities in Iran.
The area, popularly known as "The Tumour" because of its lawlessness, was a center for urban migration from the countryside and had become a refuge for drug dealers, car thieves and petty criminals.
The February crackdown brought praise from President Mohammad Khatami, who said such actions "should be pursued against corruptors throughout the country in order to root out evil."
On January 10, the head of Iran's judiciary, Ayatollah Mahmud Hashemi-Shahrudi, announced that 800 drug traffickers were waiting in death row and that amnesties had been rejected.
However Prosecutor General Ayatollah Morteza Moqtadai said earlier this month that the cases would be re-examined. State radio quoted him as saying that "most of them were condemned for transporting drugs", and not selling.
The same day, an alleged Afghan druglord was hanged in public in northeast Iran, and state media reported that authorities had distributed arms to villagers in 70 regions along the 945-kilometer (587-mile) border with Afghanistan to fight armed bandits and drug smuggling.