Hydrablog

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/30/world/middleeast/30iran.html
January 30, 2008
Iran Executes Bribery Convict
By NAZILA FATHI [Iran] [domestic sources of Iran’s foreign policy] [various factions battling it out] [one of the hardline factions has successfully banished reformers again!] [followup] [recent wave of public executions] [********]
TEHRAN — Iran’s judiciary has executed an airport customs contractor accused of bribe-taking and other corruption and has issued death sentences for three other airport employees, the ISNA news agency reported Tuesday.
Capital punishment for murder, rape and robbery is not uncommon under Iran’s strict Islamic judicial code, but it is unusual for courts to impose death sentences for corruption crimes. [****]
A judiciary spokesman, Alireza Jamshidi, was quoted by ISNA as saying that three airport employees of Tehran’s Mehrabad Airport and a customs contractor were charged with “bureaucratic corruption, economic crimes, interference in the economic system and other crimes.”
The spokesman said the case involved a bribe of more than 10 billion rials, or about $1.07 million, but did not explain whether all four defendants had each received that sum or had shared it. He said the customs contractor, who was not further identified, had already been put to death, but the other three defendants had appealed and asked for their sentence to be commuted to life imprisonment.
It was unclear when or how the contractor was executed. Most death sentences in Iran are carried out by hanging.
The number of executions in Iran has risen sharply in the past year. According to a count by Agence France-Presse based on reports in local newspapers, Iran hanged 298 people in 2007, compared with 177 in 2006. [*******]
Mr. Jamshidi acknowledged that death sentence was an unusual punishment for corruption convictions “unless the accused is accused of interfering in the country’s monetary system.”
He also announced punishments for 54 followers of the Bahai faith who were arrested early last year in the southern city of Shiraz. He said three had received prison terms of four years on charges of “propagating against the regime.” The other 51 received suspended jail terms and were released on the condition that they take courses taught by the state-run Islamic Propaganda Organization, [******] Agence France-Presse reported.
Iran’s theocracy does not recognize the legitimacy of the Bahai faith, which was founded in 19th century. [******] Members have complained of repression since the 1979 Islamic revolution.
Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company