Happy New Year in Iran: 13 Hanged in One Day

The media make such a big deal over the death penalty here in the U.S., but never have much to say when there are public hangings in Iran. At least some human rights groups are being consistent, however, and are speaking out after 13 people were publicly hanged yesterday.

In a crackdown on "immoral behaviour" Iranian authorities have hanged a total of 13 convicted criminals - including a mother of two charged with murder.

Mother Raheleh Zamani, was found guilty of murdering her husband after discovering he was having an affair, reports said.

It was claimed she chopped her husband's body into pieces, and she was hanged alongside seven men convicted of murder, in a mass execution at a prison, the Iranian Student Correspondents' Association (ISCA) reported.

The large number of executions in recent months has drawn criticism from the European Union and Western rights groups.

Rights group Amnesty International says Iran has one of the highest rates of execution in the world.

This number has increased since July when police began their crackdown on immoral behaviour.

The 13 public hangings were believed to be one of the highest in a single day in the past few months.

However, on Sept 5 last year, 21 convicted drug smugglers and other criminals were executed.

In these most recent hangings eight people convicted of murder, including Zamani, were executed in Tehran's Evin prison.

Three drug smugglers were publicly executed in the holy city of Qom, south of the capital, it was reported.

Two other drug traffickers were hanged in the southeastern city of Zahedan in Sistan-Baluchestan province, notorious for clashes between security forces and smugglers, according to the state broadcaster.

"Of the 11 people who were supposed to be hanged in Evin prison today ... 8 were executed," said the ISNA broadcast agency.

In addition to murder and drug smuggling, a variety of offenses under Sharia law are punishable by death.

Murder, adultery, rape, armed robbery, apostasy and drug trafficking are all punishable by death under Iran's Sharia law, practised since Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution.

They don't seem very eager to report the news in Iran.