Stay of Execution Fails to Save Iranian Man

Iran faced criticism over its use of the death penalty yesterday after a man was hanged for rape - despite a retraction from his accusers and the fact that he would have been 13 at the time of the crimes.

Makwan Mouloudzadeh, 20, was executed in the western city of Kermanshah, after being convicted for raping three boys in 2000. He was put to death in apparent violation of a stay of execution ordered by Iran's judiciary chief, Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi, who had requested a review last month after questioning whether the sentence conformed to sharia law.

Moulouzadeh's lawyer, Saeed Eqbali, said officials had executed his client without issuing prior notice, as Iranian law requires. The man's family had only been informed afterwards and told to collect his body. A large crowd attended his funeral yesterday in his home town of Paveh.

Human Rights Watch, which had campaigned to save Mouloudzadeh's life, said his execution showed contempt for due process while highlighting Iran's practice of executing prisoners for crimes committed as minors. Campaigners say Iran executes more child offenders than any other country, in breach of its international treaty commitments.

Moulouzadeh was arrested last year after three men claimed he had raped them six years earlier. He subsequently confessed and was publicly paraded on a donkey with his head shaved.

During his trial last May the complainants withdrew their allegations and he retracted his confession, saying it had been forced out of him. But the judge still found him guilty and issued a death sentence, despite a lack of forensic evidence.

"One of the things that is particularly shocking is that the allegations were brought ... years after the alleged offense," said Clarisa Bencomo of Human Rights Watch. "It meant there could not have been any forensic evidence, but still the prosecutor, in an unusual and illegal process, decided to pursue the case."

The execution was carried out in Kermanshah prison. It is the second time this year that Shahroudi had been over-ridden by local officials after issuing a stay of execution. In July a man was stoned to death for adultery in Qazvin province despite a prior order to re-exam the sentence.

The number of executions has risen in 2007, under a drive to combat "thugs" and improve "social security". As of September Iran had carried out 210 executions this year, compared with 177 in 2006, according to Amnesty International.