Defending the Truth

Iran Executes 21 Year Old Accused Of Gay Sex When He Was 13
by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff
Posted: December 5, 2007 - 3:00 pm ET
(New York City) The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission said Wednesday that a 21 year old man spared from execution only 10 days ago was hanged this morning.
On November 15 Iran's Chief Justice halted the execution of Makvan Mouloodzadeh and ordered a new trial.
Mouloodzadeh had been charged with having sex with another male when the accused was only 13 years old.
At his original trial no witness ever accused Mouloodzadeh of rape. Instead, the prosecution witnesses all told the court that their statements during the investigation were either untruthful or coerced.
Nevertheless Mouloodzadeh was found guilty and sentenced to death. The Supreme Court upheld his death sentence in August
Chief Justice Ayatollah Seyed Mahmoud Hashemi Shahrudi in staying the execution described the death sentence to be in violation of Islamic teachings, the religious decrees of high-ranking Shiite clerics, and the law of the land. (story)
Shahrudi's ruling sent the case to the Special Supervision Bureau of the Iranian Justice Department, a designated group of judges who are responsible for reviewing and ordering retrials of flawed cases flagged by the Iranian Chief Justice.
However, the judges decided to ratify the original court's ruling and ordered the local authorities to carry out the execution.
Mouloodzadeh was executed in Kermanshah Central Prison at 5 a.m. Wednesday morning.
Neither Mr. Mouloodzadeh's family or his lawyer were told about the execution until after it occurred, the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission said in a statement.
"This is a shameful and outrageous travesty of justice and international human rights law," said Paula Ettelbrick, IGLHRC's executive director.
"How many more young Iranians have to die before the international community takes action?"
Under Islamic law sodomy is a capital crime punishable by public lashings or hanging.
Some international gay rights groups believe that more than 4,000 lesbians and gay men have been executed since the Ayatollahs seized power in 1979. The government in Tehran has repeatedly denied the reports.
Last month it was learned that during a meeting between British and Iranian politicians a high ranking Iranian cabinet minister acknowledged for the first time that the Islamic state upholds the death penalty for homosexuality. (story)
The disclosure was in marked contrast to remarks in September by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad during a speech at Columbia University when he declared there were no homosexuals in Iran. (story)
"In Iran we don't have homosexuals like you do in your country. We do not have this phenomenon. I don't know who's told you that we have it," Ahmadinejad said.
©365Gay.com 2007

Sad, truly sad this still happens......

yep, now lets bomb the crap out of them

One must be "politically correct, I am sure you meant to say, "Let's go LIBERATE the heck out of them". Did you not? Ralph

That's why there are no homosexuals in Iran.

Once again just proving the point about the peace loving religion of Islam. Homosexuals under the Sharia are killed, and here in this country they are mainstream, and liberals wonder why Islamic extremists hate us so much.

dmk

Oh yes Mr. Falwell and Mr. Robertson, homosexuals are THE reason Islamic fundamentalists are targeting this country for attack.

[/sarcasm]

The more realistic statement is the following. "The United States is predominately a Christian Nation. Christianity and Islam have fundamental differences. They cannot coexist because they cannot both be correct. It is this concept that one must defend their faith, prove the other wrong, that defines the struggle between Islam and the United States. The relevance of homosexuality to this issue Islamic fundamentalists targeting the United States is less than .000000000001%."

Let's put responsibility where responsibility is due.

I think you both have an element of truth to your debates. Sgt was right in that pointing out this case as a testament to the fact that "religion of peace" seems to be an oxymoron. You're right that homosexuality is not primarily concerned here, but you also have to recognize that the treating of homosexuals is *a* fundamental difference between our two cultures, at least today.

But I think both of the reasons you two present are irrelevant still when compared to our foreign policy. It's naive to shrug it off as "they hate us for our freedom". They're primarily engaged with us because of our presence in their 'holy land' and especially our biased support in favor of the Israelis and the material support of Zionism and the colonization of their lands. The fact that we don't have Sharia law, and there are a lot of very religious Christians in the United States just makes it easier for them to pull the trigger.

I wonder when the UN human rights group is going to get around to condeming Iran for acts like this? Perhaps a resolution is in order, Oh wait, there to busy pointing fingers at Israel to worry about that.

Any time you are on trial, and the chief justice has the title "Ayatollah", you are totally fucked!

If homosexuality is considered wrong in a country, that should be honored. We can't bomb the crap out of country just because they condem homosexuality. What they believe is what they believe. Not saying that bombing the crap out of them isn't a good idea, but we should do what we can to respect their beliefs. Sure, I think the hanging was wrong, but what they do is what they do. Maybe imprisionment would have been better than killing the man.