Islamic

"No Doubt We're In The Last Days" News

Iran Focus 8-20-2004

IRAN - On Sunday, August 15, a 16-year-old girl in the town of Neka, northern Iran, was executed. Ateqeh Sahaleh was hanged in public on Simetry Street off Rah Ahan Street at the city center.

The sentence was issued by the head of Neka’s Justice Department and subsequently upheld by the mullahs’ Supreme Court and carried out with the approval of Judiciary Chief Mahmoud Shahroudi.

In her summary trial, the teenage victim did not have any lawyer, and efforts by her family to recruit a lawyer were to no avail. Ateqeh personally defended herself. She told the religious judge, Haji Rezai, that he should punish the main perpetrators of moral corruption, not the victims.

The judge personally pursued Ateqeh’s death sentence, beyond all normal procedures and finally gained the approval of the Supreme Court. After her execution Rezai said that her punishment was not execution [for her original crime], but that he had her executed for her “sharp tongue”.