IRAN HANGS CONVICTED CHILD ABUSER

Iran hanged a man who was found guilty of severely torturing and raping a 12 year old boy in the western city of Hamedan, the state news agency IRNA reported. The 23 year old man, identified only as A., was hanged in a prison in Hamedan for raping and torturing the boy, named as Behzad, in February 2007, it said. The Etemad Melli newspaper said the man was named Ali and an acquaintance of Behzad's family who was apprehended by a hospital guard when he tried to drop off the child after four days of "physical and sexual abuse". "They took drugs and burned my body and tongue with cigarettes and a hot skewer. In these four days, we went around in the car in the morning and at night they tortured and raped me," Behzad told Etemad Melli. Behzad was picked up from his house by Ali and his friend Mehdi in the absence of his divorced mother who "knew Ali and trusted him", the report said. "The accomplice is also sentenced to death but his verdict has not yet been approved by the Supreme Court," IRNA said.