Two gay Iranian boys Mahmoud Asgari, aged 16, and Ayaz Marhoni, aged 18, living in rural Iran, were executed at 10.00 on 19 July 2005, for the sin and criminal offence, under Islamic Sharia law in the Islamic Republic of Iran, of homosexuality. The two boys were hanged on July 19 in Edalat (Justice) Square in the city of Mashhad in north-eastern Iran, on the orders of Court No. 19.

According to veteran political journalist Doug Ireland, from whose website the following data is based and extrapolated, the website Iran Focus reports that "Members of Iran’s parliament from the north-eastern city of Mashad, where a minor and an 18-year-old man were publicly hanged yesterday, vented their anger on Wednesday on foreign and domestic news outlets for reporting the ages of hanged prisoners...Ultra-conservative deputy Ali Asgari said that the two deserved to be hanged in public, adding, 'Whatever sentence is decreed by an Islamic penal system must be approved, unless proven otherwise.' Asgari complained of foreign and domestic reporting that the two we re mere boys".

"Instead of paying tribute to the action of the judiciary, the media are mentioning the age of the hanged criminals and creating a commotion that harms the interests of the state,' the member of the Majlis Legal Affairs Committee said. 'Even if certain websites made a reference to their age, journalists should not pursue this. These individuals were corrupt. Their sentence was carried out with the approval of the judiciary and it served them right."

Consensual gay sex in any form is punishable by death in the Islamic Republic of Iran. According to the website Age of Consent which monitors such laws around the world, in Iran "Homosexuality is illegal, those charged with love-making are given a choice of four deathstyles: being hanged, stoned, halved by a sword, or dropped from the highest perch. According to Article 152, if two men not related by blood are discovered naked under one cover without good reason, both will be punished at a judge's discretion. Gay teenagers (Article 144) are also punished at a judge's discretion. Rubbing one's penis between the thighs without penetration (tafheed) shall be punished by 100 lashes for each offender. This act, known to the English-speaking world as 'frottage,' is punishable by death if the 'offender' is a non-Muslim. If frottage is thrice repeated and penalty-lashes have failed to stop such repetitions, upon the fourth 'offence' both men will be put to death. According to Article 156, a person who repents and confesses his gay behaviour prior to his identification by four wi tnesses, may be pardoned. Even kissing 'with lust' (Article 155) is forbidden. This bizarre law works to eliminate old Persian male-bonding customs, including common kissing and holding hands in public." Outrage, in its release about the gay teens' execution, noted that, "according to Iranian human rights campaigners, over 4000 lesbians and gay men have been executed since the Ayatollahs seized power in 1979. Last August, a 16-year-old girl , [Atefeh Rajabi] was hanged [in the Caspian port of Neka] for 'acts incompatible with chastity,' [i.e., sex before marriage]."

In the case of the two teens hanged in Mashhad, "They admitted having gay sex (probably under torture) but claimed in their defence that most young boys had sex with each other and that they were not aware that homosexuality was punishable by death," according to the Iranian Student's National Association (ISNA) report (translated by OutRage!). "Prior to their execution, the gay teenagers were held in prison for 14 months and severely beaten with 228 lashes. The length of their detention suggests that they committed the so-called offences more than a year earlier, when they were around the ages of 14 and 16."

Ruhollah Rezazadeh, the lawyer of the younger of the two boys, had appealed that he was too young to be executed and that the court should take into account his age . However, the Supreme Court in Tehran ordered him to be hanged.

As a state party to the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, Iran has undertaken not to execute anyone for an offence committed when they were under the age of 18, which means that by hanging the two boys Iran is in violation of international law.The Iranian authorities are putting out a cover story that the two boys had participated in the rape of a 13 year old, but OutRage! affirms from its sources that this accusation is a smokescreen for inhuman conduct and is without foundation. But there is no mention of this Iranian government accusation in the original ISNA report, otherwise quite detailed, which suggests it is a recent invention.

Furthermore, it is hardly surprising that, at the very moment at which Iran is engaged in the most delicate negotiation with the Western powers over nuclear materials, the outcome of which will have a profound impact on the Iranian economy, the Iranian government, when caught in a heinous act of barbarity that is also a violation of Iran's commitments under international law -- should try to find a new excuse for the inexcusable.

The following article is taken from sodomylaws.org

Nobel Laureate Condemns Hanging of Gay Teens in Iran

The Advocate, 26 July 2005

Nobel Peace laureate Shirin Ebadi on Saturday condemned the hanging of two teenagers accused of raping younger boys in northeastern Iran, a punishment that also prompted protests by international organisations and human rights groups. Last week’s hangings of an 18-year-old and 16-year-old on charges of involvement in homosexual acts violated Iran’s obligations under the International Convention on the Rights of the Child, which bans such executions, Ebadi said.

Ebadi said her Center for the Protection of Human Rights will intensify its fight against Iran’s executions of minors. “My calls for a law clearly banning execution of under-18s has fallen on deaf ears so far, but I will not give up the fight,” Ebadi told the Associated Press.

Mahmoud Asgari, 16, and Ayaz Marhoni, 18, were hanged publicly July 19 in the city of Mashhad on charges of raping younger boys. They said before their executions that they were not aware that homosexual acts were punishable by death. Asgari had been accused of raping a 13-year-old boy. His lawyer, Rohollah Razaz Zadeh, said Iranian courts are supposed to commute death sentences handed to children to five years in jail. “The judiciary has trampled its own laws,” Razaz Zadeh told the AP.

But the lawyer said Iran’s supreme court upheld the verdict and allowed the execution despite his objections.

Gay rights groups, such as the London-based OutRage! and Iranian opposition groups suggested the rape allegations were trumped-up charges aimed to undermine public sympathy for the teenagers. In Sweden, foreign ministry spokesman Per Saland said the government is “looking very seriously” at the hangings. “We are against the death penalty, and we particularly react when it comes to the execution of minors, pregnant women, and the mentally disabled,” Saland said.

The Swedish Federation for Lesbian, Gay, and Transgender Rights posted a photo on its Web site showing hooded executioners tightening ropes around the suspects’ necks. The group’s chairman, Soren Andersson, called on Sweden’s government not to deport gay and lesbian asylum seekers back to Iran. “Sweden has turned gay and lesbian refugees back to Iran, and they should know that these people could be killed,” he said. Being gay or lesbian should be enough for refugees to remain in Sweden and not be returned to Iran, he added.

Ebadi, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003, has campaigned to protect the rights of children and improve human rights in Iran but has met stiff resistance from the judiciary, which is controlled by hard-liners. The Iranian government last year refused to give Ebadi permission to stage a rally to protest children’s executions.

Under Iranian law, girls older than 9 and boys older than 15 face execution if they commit crimes such as murder and rape. Under certain conditions, capital punishment is imposed for those engaging in illegal sexual relations. In 2003 a 16-year-old girl said to be suffering from a psychological disorder was executed in Neka, a town in northern Iran, on charges of having an illegal sexual relationship.

While there are no official figures on death sentences given to minors, human rights activists say about a dozen were executed in Iran last year. (AP)