The Supreme Court of Iran has sentenced four gay men to death as “enemies of Allah,” according to the Human Rights Activist News Agency (HRANA). Vahid Akbari, Sahadat Arefi, Javid Akbari and Hushmand Akbari are to be executed by hanging for committing sodomy in accordance with strict Sharia’ law.
Human-rights lawyer Mehri Jafari told Gold Star News that he was “horrified and saddened” by the sentence and said the alleged crime’s location is an important factor:
“Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad [province] is one of the most undeveloped provinces in Iran and it is obvious that a lack of access to lawyers and fair trial can be considered a serious issue in this case. After this announcement it is very likely that the execution will be carried out soon, and the remote location makes it difficult to exert any influence on the process.”
Meanwhile, the human-rights organization EveryOne is calling on Navanethem Pillay, the U.N. High Commissioner on Human Rights, and Nils Muižnieks, the Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights—as well as the Organization for Islamic Cooperation and the Islamic Human Rights Commission—to step in and save these men’s lives.
Martin
Iran is a shit hole country. Probably the most evil country in the world…
dave
Islam is an evil ideology. It must be destroyed.
doug105
This why I don’t give a crap every time some uber liberal cry’s about Israel and so called pink washing.
1equalityUSA
If the United States doesn’t start taking Separation of Church and State more seriously, we will have nothing but problems. The doctrine du jour can coaxed this way and that.
Iran’s Supreme Court should be ashamed of itself. (Scalia may get some ideas!!!)
infidel77
Christians would happily execute us queers if given the opportunity. The truth is ALL religion is superstition and ignorance and ALL religion must be destroyed.
Danny
I think all LGBTA people would agree that the Iranian government is guilty of genocide against LGBTA people. So there is no reason to preserve thte Iranian government at all.
jason
What is the fucking UN doing? Nothing. The UN is giving a pass to Iran. Fuck the UN.
jason
Ahmadinejad is a smelly prick who needs to be tried before an international tribunal along with the mad mullahs.
Daez
I love how we all jump on the bandwagon to defend these guys just because they are gay. I highly doubt they would jump on the bandwagon to defend us because we are American.
jason
I’m not defending these guys because they’re gay. I’m defending them against the religious murderers in Iran. I’d defend them if they were straight.
Houston Bill
Perhaps we can ask the following groups for comment
1) C-FAM (Catholic Church’s lobbying arm at UN) – Opposes UN resoultions condemning execution or jailing of persons because they are gay. Condemned Obama Administration condemnation of criminalization of being Gay
2) Family Research Council (same)
3) World Congress of Families (same)
4) Family Watch International (same – Mormon)
All of these groups claim that they are victims of religious persecution by Gays. How about a comment on whether the persecution of Gays by IRAN, which they oppose condemnation by the UN, rises to the same standard of persecution that they claim they face by Gay persons.
Martin
@Daez: If the tables were turned and you stood to be executed because you are gay theres a strong probability they would defend you too. Of course you dont seem to deserve it…
Daez
@Martin: I highly doubt it since it is ingrained in the minds of every single Iranian citizen that America is the enemy.
miKem
see GOP, gay rights is a civil right…..
w.e.
Bomb the shit out of that sorry excuse of a country, starting with the presidential palace.
Scott in NYC
@Houston Bill:
Your moral equivalence is gross. When any of those groups are hanging gay men, by all means, make the point. Until then – it is NOT the same and shame on you for suggesting it is.
Spike
No different then what it would be like in the US under a Rick Santorum Presidency.
freddie
Four men are going to be legally murdered for having sex. What an incredible world we live in.
Xerxes
@Danny:
LGBT- A? What is the A, “all of the above” ?
B
When I tried a google search using the names of those who are going to be executed, I didn’t find any news source in English other than gay-oriented ones. I’m not sure what the make of that. You’d think at least an AP report would have cropped up.
Jason
Where is Obama’s statement of outrage?
Mark
@Jason
They can’t donate to Obama 2012 so he doesn’t care. Wait, Hillary will have a statement though.
B
No. 21 · Jason wrote, “Where is Obama’s statement of outrage?” See No. 20 – the story is not appearing in mainstream newspapers (NY Times, etc.) as far as I can tell with a quick search. Do you think Obama personally monitors Queerty? He probably didn’t even know about it.
TampaBayTed
If this story is indeed true, maybe we should be contacting Massad Special Forces to liberate these men. Remember Entebe? The Israelis don’t give a flying fuck about world opinion. Most virtually ignored the plight of the Jews under Hitler’s reign of terror. Remember the Ship of Fools? Israel doesn’t play nice because the other shit fuckwads in the world certainly don’t.
enlightenone
@Jason: President Obama is working to ensure you aren’t executed whether you deserve it or not! Now if Romey, Ryan, Paul, or Scrotum, I mean Santorum was president….
enlightenone
@Mark: (See Jason), but don’t get caught! Your Republican pals like Scott Lively might want to make an example out of the you of two.