death penalty news October 12, 2004
IRAN: Execution demanded as child serial killer trial opens in Iran The trial of two men accused of kidnapping, raping and murdering 20 people -- most of them children -- began in Tehran on Tuesday with the prosecutor and victims' relatives demanding the death penalty. Mohammad Bijeh and his alleged accomplice Ali Baghi, dubbed "hyenas" or "vampires of the Tehran desert" in the press, were arrested last month and have been charged with killing and raping 17 children, two men and a woman in the desert south of Tehran. According to media the two men were judged to be in their "full faculty", meaning they could stand trial. The trial of the two men, who worked in a brickworks in Pakdasht, an impoverished town south of Tehran, is taking place behind closed doors due the horrific nature of the crimes, state television said. No further information on Tuesday's proceedings were available. If convicted, the pair will face execution, and reports said the prosecutor and relatives of those killed called Tuesday for "the harshest possible sentence". The Iranian student news agency ISNA quoted the father of a young boy who was one of the victims as complaining of irregularities in the case, notably that Baghi was arrested at one point but then allowed free on bail. The case has drawn huge media attention, with one reader writing to a newspaper asking for the alleged killers to be burned alive in a brick furnace and President Mohammad Khatami has ordered his interior minister to personally investigate the case. (source: AFP / Tehran Times)
