Four Iranian men convicted of belonging to an organised...

Four Iranian men convicted of belonging to an organised crime gang were hanged in the northern province of Mazandaran. The four gang members, who had been convicted of murder, adultery, bribery, embezzlement and forgery, were hanged in public in the town of Salmanshahr. The men, part of a gang called "Wild", were branded by the court as being "corrupt on earth", provincial judiciary chief Foulad Amoli was quoted as saying. "The police had killed three members of the gang including the head, identified as Mehid Shams, during the arrest operations," Amoli said, adding that other gang members -- numbering around 100 -- were sentenced to long jail terms.