Iran

Iran Focus-News: "Tehran, Iran, Nov. 14 - A gay Iranian man was hanged in public on Tuesday in the western city of Kermanshah on the charge of sodomy.

Shahab Darvishi was charged with organising a “corruption ring”, deliberate assault, and “lavat”, which means homosexual relationship between two men or sodomy, the official news agency IRNA reported.

Darvishi was hanged in the evening in Kermanshah’s “Freedom Square” in front of hundreds of people, the report said.

Under Iran’s Islamic Penal Code, homosexuality between consenting adults is a capital crime and official Iranian sources express hostility to homosexual practices. A state radio commentary on March 7, 2005 criticised gay marriages in Western countries. Ayatollah Ebrahim Amini, an influential cleric, said in his Friday-prayer sermon in Qom that gay and lesbian marriages reflect a weakness of Western culture, state television reported on July 13, 2002. Ayatollah Ali Meshkini in his Friday-prayer sermon in Qom criticised the German Green Party for being pro-homosexual, state television reported on April 29, 2000."