Hangings in Iran increase, to silence dissent

Here is a video of a recent public hanging of 3 people, two men and a woman:



More such videos can be seen here.

I know some people think "Well they are probably criminals, so who cares?" But ARE they? There has been rioting and unrest in Iran due to a number of factors; high unemployment, gasoline rationing, censorship,electricity outages, and a growing crackdown by the fashion police to enforce sharia law. I've read many, many reports like the following, citing trumped up charges used to execute political dissidents. This article refers not to the video above, buy to yet another hanging of two young men:

Hanging caught on video reveals Iran's crackdown on dissidents

[...] The film shows the public hanging of Alireza Gorji, 23, and his friend Hossein Makesh, 22, in July in Broudjerd, Iran. According to official versions of the charges, they were put to death because they had behaved 'immorally'. The truth, according to anti-government campaigners, is that the two men were among increasing numbers of political activists being executed by Iran on trumped-up charges.

'Both these men had been involved in anti-government protests in their home town and everyone who watch the hanging knew this,' said a human rights observer in Tehran.

On Tuesday the UN General Assembly condemned Iran for human rights abuses and the video - filmed by a Revolutionary Guard, smuggled out by opposition activists and seen by The Observer - is rare evidence of Iran's efforts to quell dissent. Amnesty International last year documented at least 94 public executions although many more are suspected to take place in secret - in September the authorities told a lawyer for Valliollah Feyz-Mahdavi, 28, that he had died after a suicide attempt in prison. Feyz-Mahdavi had been arrested for membership of Iran's main opposition - the People's Mojahedin Organistation of Iran.

Tehran has now been condemned on more than 50 occasions by the UN for severe human rights violations. [...]

(bold emphasis mine). Each of the public hangings usually have several people being hanged. The numbers have been increasing dramatically each year.

Cranes are used so as not to break the neck, but rather, insure the suffering by slow strangulation, which can take as long as six minutes to complete. It seems to increasingly be the preferred way to both silence political opposition and deal with a rampant unemployment problem.

For crimes like adultery there are also more traditional methods of execution still in use, like stoning people to death [video]. A nice social event for the religious men-folk.


Related Links:

Hanging in Iran
This is a prior post of mine, with more photos and details on this tragic topic.

Thousands More To Hang in Iran
A growing trend, with no end in sight...