LONDON, August 10  –  Five cities in the US and Europe will stage protests against the execution of two teenage boys in Iran on charges involving homosexual acts.

Dublin, San Francisco, London, Paris and Montpelier will join forces  tomorrow (Thursday August 11) to oppose Iran’s use of the death penalty and its persecution of lesbian, gay and bisexual people.

In San Francisco, mayor Gavin Newsom has been invited to speak.

The London protest will be between 1pm and 2pm outside the Embassy of Iran, 16 Prince’s Gate, London, SW7 (near the Royal Albert Hall, by the junction of Kensington Road and Exhibition Road)

Mahmoud Asgari (16) and Ayaz Marhoni (18) were hanged in Edalat (Justice) Square in the city of Mashhad, in north east Iran, on July 19.

“Some reports say the youths were hanged for gay sex. The Iranian government claims they were hanged for the rape of a 13 year old boy,” reports Ramzi Isalam of the LGBT human rights group OutRage!.

Fact: Iran executes lesbians and gays. The Iranian government has executed 4,000 homosexuals since 1979, according to estimates in the mid-1990s by the exiled Iranian gay rights group, Homan.

Fact: The Iranian government often pins false charges on the victims of its murderous policies in order to discredit them and discourage public protests.

“We are not prepared to give the violently homophobic Iranian government the benefit of the doubt.  It has previously lied to justify public executions.  In any case, the death penalty is a disproportionate punishment.  It is barbaric and should be abolished,” added Mr Isalam.

“OutRage!’s sources for this story include clandestine gay and lesbian activists inside Iran, members of the democratic and left Iranian opposition, and the websites of government-sanctioned news agencies in Iran,” reports Aaron Saeed, gay Muslim spokesperson for OutRage!

“The Islamic fundamentalist regime in Iran enforces Sharia law, which dictates the death penalty for gay sex: variously including hanging, stoning, beheading or dropping from a high place like a tall building or cliff-top.

“The teenagers admitted to having gay sex, probably under torture, but claimed in their defence that their crime was common and they were not aware it was punishable by death.

“Prior to their execution, the teenagers were held in prison for 14 months and severely beaten with 228 lashes.

“Their length of detention suggests that they committed the so-called offences more than a year earlier, when Mahmoud was 15 and Ayaz was 17. In other words, both youths were minors at the time of the offence.

”Ruhollah Rezazadeh, the lawyer of the youngest boy (16), had appealed that he was too young to be executed and that the court should take into account his tender age.  He was quoted by the IRIN news agency [IRIN is a United Nations news agency] as saying that “the judiciary had trampled on its own laws”, explaining that the Iranian courts usually commute death sentences on children to five year jail.

“Despite his pleas, the Supreme Court in Tehran ordered Mahmoud to be hanged.

“Under the Iranian penal code, girls as young as nine and boys as young as 15 can be hanged.

“Three other young gay Iranians are being hunted by the police in connection with the same so-called crime.  They have gone into hiding and cannot be found. If caught, they will probably also face execution,“ Mr Saeed concluded.

Brett Lock, campaign co-ordinator at Outrage! added: “The allegation of rape may be a trumped up charge to undermine public sympathy for the youths.  The Iranian regime often resorts to smears and false allegations to discredit people it has executed and to undermine human rights campaigns.

“It could be that the 13 year old was a willing participant but that Iranian law (like the laws of many western nations) deems that no person aged 13 is capable of sexual consent and that therefore even consensual sexual contact is automatically deemed in law to be statutory rape.

“The use of torture is routine in Iran.  These two boys were violently abused in prison, receiving more than 200 lashes.

“Iran is a fascist-style tyranny based on a fundamentalist version of Islam.  We join with progressive Muslims to denounce the fundamentalists and to support democratic and left Iranians striving to topple the Ayatollahs.

“OutRage! wholeheartedly supports the struggle of the Iranian people to overthrow clerical tyranny and to secure democracy and human rights.

“Without an end to the fundamentalist regime, there can never be justice for LGBT people, women, trade unionists and minority religions and nationalities in Iran.

“The lack of liberal and left support for the victims of the Iranian tyranny is truly shocking.  We deplore the absence of international solidarity with Iranians fighting for freedom,” concluded Mr Lock.

DETAILS OF PROTESTS

Dublin:  Outside the Iranian Embassy, 72 Mount Merrion Avenue, Blackrock, Dublin.  6.30 to 8 pm.  Assemble outside Blackrock DART station at 6.15pm

London:  Outside the Iranian Embassy, 16 Prince’s Gate, London, SW7 (near the Royal Albert Hall, by the junction of Kensington Road and Exhibition Road).  1 to 2 pm.

San Francisco:  Press Conference and Protest: Harvey Milk Plaza, Castro and Market Streets. 5-6pm

France:  Pour dénoncer la peine de mort et la pénalisation de l’homosexualité en Iran, un collectif d’associations appelle à un rassemblement le jeudi 11 août 2005. Voir http://www.si-lgbt.org/spip_redirect.php3?id_article=27

■ à PARIS : 19h sur la place Edmond Michelet (parvis de Beaubourg)
■ à MONTPELIER : 12h sur la place de la Comédie (Trois Grâces)

See also:  Iran Protests Hit US; San Francisco Action Planned from PageOneQ (USA)

11:00 (UK) July 27: Executed Gay Iranian Teens: London Embassy Protest Set.  A London protest over the execution of two gay teenagers in Iran has been arranged by gay human rights group Outrage! for Thursday August 11 outside the Iranian Embassy in Prince’s Gate, SW7.  Mahmoud Asgari and Ayaz Marhoni were publicly executed by hanging last week in Mashhad, north east Iran on, July 19.

15:00 (UK) July 27: Iran and USA Account for 78% of World’s Child Executions.  The use of the death penalty against child offenders – people under 18 at the time of the crime – is prohibited under international law, yet a handful of countries still persist with child executions, says Amnesty International.  

15:00 (UK) July 28: Flaws In Blade Report of 'Gay' Executions in Iran, Outrage! Says.  News reports in the US Washington Blade and New York Blade newspapers on the execution of two teens in Iran are flawed, according to the British LGBT human rights group OutRage!, which helped break the story to the international media and human rights groups.

August 1:  Gay Media's Failure to Accurately Report Adds to Growing Hatred Towards Islamic World.  Op-Ed by Faisal Alam.  In the wake of the recent London bombings, the Western world has been propelled into another vicious cycle of revenge against Muslims and the Islamic world.  While mainstream media around the world have more accurately represented the outpouring of condemnation by Muslim organizations and institutions against the attacks in London, the gay and lesbian media in the U.S. has unfortunately succumbed once again to the false belief that Islam condones acts of violence including suicide bombings, executions of civilians and even the killing of homosexuals.