Two boys executed in Iran for sexual crimes

by Michael Rogers

UPDATE, 9:00am, Thursday: Additional reports have confrimed that the two young men were executed by the Iranian government for the crime of "homosexuality."

For additional information, please read:
1. DOUG IRELAND: IRAN EXECUTES 2 GAY TEENAGERS
2. OUTRAGE: Iran executes gay teenagers: Boys didn't know sex was "punishable by death"


Original Article:

Two boys, one aged 18 and one underage minor, were lashed 228 times before being hung by Iranian authorities in the northeastern city of Mashad, PageOneQ has learned.

Within hours of the execution, Members of Iran’s parliament expressed outrage, not for the deaths of the two young men, identified only by the the initials A.M. and M.A., but at journalists who reported the ages of those who were put to death.

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WORLDWIDE PROTESTS OVER IRAN HANGINGS OF TEENS AS NEW REPORTS FROM INSIDE IRAN QUESTION THE VALIDITY OF THE 'RAPE' CHARGE

Worldwide protests have been called against the death penalty and criminalization of homophobia in Iran in the wake of the hanging of two teen boys in the Iranian city of Mashad. August 11 has been designated as the day for a series of  coordinated demonstrations in France, Ireland, the United Kingdom, and elsewhere.

In France, a coalition of 20 gay organizations has said that the July 19 hangings of the two Iranian youths for "homosexual acts" -- the boys  were also convicted of  "sexual assault," but there is enormous controversy over whether or not that charge was justified -- "illustrates perfectly the policy of repression and homophobic hate which persists in Iran," and recalls  that "the execution of two youths who were underage at the time of the 'crimes' they were charged with is itself a crime under humanitarian international law, since Iran is a signatory party to the International Conventions on Civil and Political Rights and on the Rights of the Child, which both forbid executions of minors." 

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