December 08, 2007

How Dangerous is it to be Gay in Iran?

According to this story, very. The government was so eager to do this poor man in that they ignored the few laws they had on the books that would have offered him any protection at all. I'm posting an excerpt here, and there's more detail in the Gay City News story I've linked.

The Islamic Republic of Iran murdered Makwan Moloudzadeh, a lad of 21, on
the cold morning of December 5. Makwan was dragged at dawn from his jail cell in
the Kermanshah Central Prison and hanged in secret within the prison, without
the required presence of his lawyer and family, for the so-called "crime" of
having had anal sexual relations, which the authorities claimed was rape, with
boys of his own age eight years ago, when he was 13.

Given witness recantings during his trial, it is impossible to know what,
if in fact anything, actually transpired.

Amnesty International released a statement denouncing the execution as a
"mockery of justice." The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights
Commission's executive director, Paula Ettelbrick, said in a statement, "This is
a shameful and outrageous travesty of justice and international human rights
law. How many more young Iranians have to die before the international community
takes action?"

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