City of Shiraz Advertises Public Hanging of Nine Armed Robbers

The writing on the placards announcing the public hangings stated, “Fulfillment of divine provenance is a bigger blessing than forty days and nights of merciful rain.”

The Public Relations Office of the Fars Province Judiciary reported on April 16 the public execution of nine individuals described as “armed robbers” and “members of three armed robbery gangs.” According to the Fars Judiciary report, the execution sentences of six of the individuals were carried out publicly at the crime location, and the three other suspects, whose crimes occurred in villages and roads around Shiraz, were executed inside the Adel Abad Prison in Shiraz.

The Fars Judiciary has stated, “The suspects, who were all put on trial in the Second Branch of the Shiraz Islamic Revolutionary Court, were convicted of enmity with God by participating in repeated armed robberies accompanied by harassment, intimidation, murder, and kidnapping, and, following the legal due process and confirmation by the Eleventh Branch of the Supreme Court, their sentences were carried out this morning in the presence of a large number of people.”

The public executions of the six in Shiraz were advertised citywide on wall placards. The Public Relations Office of the Fars Province Judiciary wrote that a large number of people had gathered to watch the executions. The writing on the placards announcing the public hangings stated, “Fulfillment of divine provenance is a bigger blessing than forty days and nights of merciful rain.” In addition, the convicts’ personal details were written on the placards, even though the Fars Judiciary announcement had only mentioned their initials.

The Judiciary report indicated that the four-member armed robbery gang started their operation in October 2012, robbing some banks and a gold shop in Shiraz, and during one of their robberies they killed a passerby in one of the banks and severely injured the gold shop owner and his child by firing a gun.

Three members of another gang, who were all accused of armed robbery of passengers of five vehicles and five banks in Shiraz and Bandar Abbas between August and December 2012, were also found guilty of moharebeh, enmity with God. Two of the main members were sentenced to death by hanging, and the third was sentenced to life imprisonment in exile. Three other suspects hanged inside Adel Abad Prison had been convicted of armed robbery on the roads outside Shiraz, as well as attempted kidnapping, murder, and rape.