IRAN: NO WARNING OF YOUTH'S HANGING, LAWYER CLAIMS

Saiid Eghbal, the lawyer of hanged homosexual Iranian youth Makwan Moloudzadeh, said that neither he nor Makwan's family were warned of the imminent execution and had been assured of a review. The head of the Judicial Authority, Ayatollah Mahmoud Shahroudi, had told several humanitarian groups and his lawyer that the death sentence would be postponed. "Ayatollah Shahroudi had assured us that he would call for a review of the sentence, because according to him it was not correct," Eghbal told AKI. "I knew of the hanging after the sentence was carried out and there were not even legal avenues or notice given to the family of young Makwan," said Eghbal. "In the course of his trial my client had clearly said that the presumed confessions that were presented had been extracted through the use of violence."