Morteza Amini Moqaddam, a teenager who had been convicted...

Morteza Amini Moqaddam, a teenager who had been convicted of murder, escaped execution after the father of his victim pardoned him. The noose had already placed around his neck for a public hanging in the Iranian capital Tehran. Thousands of people who had gathered at the execution site in a street in eastern part of the city cheered, jumped into the air and hugged each other as the noose, hanging from the shaft of a crane, was removed from Moqaddam's neck. Moqaddam had been sentenced to hang for stabbing to death Hadi Mohebbi, a member of the Basij Islamic militia, in December, 1999. The stabbing followed an attempt by Mohebbi to stop a friend of Moqaddam from smoking during the Moslem fasting month of Ramadan. Smoking in public, along with eating and drinking, is banned in Iran during Ramadan.