Iran hangs three convicted rapists

Country ranks second only to China in number of prisoners put to death last year

A mural in the Iranian capital Tehran. AFP

Iran executed three convicted rapists in the southern city of Shiraz on Thursday, the judiciary said.

“The perpetrators of assault and rape on women in Shiraz, who were identified and arrested in October last year, were hanged this morning,” the judiciary's Mizan Online news website reported.

“This gang of three carried out armed robberies and assaulted and raped a number of women last year,” Mizan quoted Fars province prosecutor Kazem Mousavi as saying.

They were sentenced to death in July, and their sentences later confirmed by the Supreme Court, Mizan added.

Iran was second only to China in the number of executions it carried out last year, putting to death 314 people, according to human rights group Amnesty International.

The judiciary has said that 11 people have been sentenced to death over the protests that erupted after the September 16 death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a young Iranian Kurd arrested for allegedly violating the country's strict dress code for women.

Two of them have been executed.

Majidreza Rahnavard, 23, was hanged in public on December 12 after being sentenced to death by a court in second city Mashhad for killing two members of the security forces with a knife.

Four days earlier, Mohsen Shekari, also 23, was executed for wounding a member of the security forces.

Campaigners say a dozen other defendants are charged with offences that could see them receive the death penalty too.