RUSSIA/IRAN
Following Gay Executions, Putin Asked to Stop Diplomatic and Trade Relations With Iran
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MOSCOW, July 23 – Russian gay leaders have sent a letter to the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, asking him to condemn executions of teenage gays in Iran on July 19.
In their letter signed by Head of GayRussia.ru, Nikolai Alekseev; Head of Gayly.ru, Valeri Kamov; lesbian leader Evgeniaya Debryanskaya and journalist Nikolai Baev, they asked the Russian President to use all the possible diplomatic ways of pressure in order to stop criminal prosecutions for homosexuality in Iran.
They asked President Putin to stop diplomatic and trade relations with what they called the “barbarian regime of Islamic extremists”.
Russia is still one of the biggest economic partners of Iran and consequently has may ways to pressure the regime.
Russian gay leaders also send a letter to the Ambassador of Iran in Russia asking him to take measures so that such executions are not repeated as the right to life is universal and is guaranteed to all human beings.
The letter to the Russian President V. Putin in full:
Dear Vladimir Vladimirovich,
We would like to pay your attention to the event that happened in the Islamic Republic of Iran on 19 July 2005, the execution via hanging of two young boys for the only fact of entering into homosexual relations. One of the boys was 18 while the other even did not reach that age.
Projects GayRussia.Ru and Gayly.Ru join the international condemnation of this barbarian act and ask you to use all the pressure with the aim to stop executions and criminal prosecutions of the persons of homosexual orientation in Iran. Homosexual relations are not a crime in the developed democratic countries, moreover more countries pass laws legalizing same-sex marriages and unions.
International gay community is outraged and appeals to the authorities of all democratic states to stop diplomatic and trade relations with the regime that executes guilty people, including children. We address the same request to you. Russian Federation can not close the eyes to the middle aged barbarity and huge human rights violations.
We hope for your understanding and assistance!
Faithfully yours,
N. Alekseev
Head GayRussia.Ru
V. Kamov
Head Gayly.Ru
E. Debryanskaya
Leader of the Russian lesbian movement
N. Baev
Journalist
LINKS
Iran Focus:
Iran Majlis Deputies Endorse Execution of Minor.
(In English)
Iran Executes 2 Gay Teenagers, by Doug
Ireland.
Two Boys Executed in Iran for Sexual Crimes,
by Michael Rogers (PageOneQ)
Outrage! website
Human Rights Campaign website
13:00 July 21 (UK): Iran Executes Two Gay Teens In Public Hanging (UK Gay News)
22:00 July 21 (UK) update from PageOneQ.com
Iranian Government-In-Exile Condemns Executions of
Boys.
The Foreign Affairs
Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran issued the following
statement regarding the execution of the tw young men in Iran: In Iran
mullahs' henchmen publicly hanged two young boys in Edalat (Justice) Square
in Mashhad. In shocking crime, mullahs’ henchmen hang an 18-year-old, and a
juvenile 18 years of age Iranian Resistance urges EU to cut off all dialogue
with the religious fascism ruling Iran.
22:00 July 22 (UK): Condoleezza Rice Urged to Condemn Execution of Gay Iranian Teens. The Human Rights Campaign sent a letter today to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice asking her to condemn the recent execution of two gay teens in Iran as well as other horrific human rights abuses against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people across the globe.
9:00 (UK) July 23: Nobel Peace Prize Winner Condemns Execution of Gay Iranian Teens. Shirin Ebadi, the 2003 winner of the Nobel Prize for Peace, has condemned the execution of two teenagers in Iran earlier this week.
20:30 (UK) July 23: Nobel Peace Prize Winner Condemns Execution of Gay Iranian Teens. Shirin Ebadi, the 2003 winner of the Nobel Prize for Peace, has condemned the execution of two teenagers in Iran earlier this week.
18:00 (UK) July 26: Activists Condemn Execution of Gay Teens. Human rights groups the world over have strongly condemned the recent execution of two gay teenagers in northeastern Iran.
23:00 (UK) July 26: Despite Executions, There Is Hope For Gays in Iran. Gay Iranians speak from inside Iran to Nikolai Alekseev, head of GayRussia.ru, about life in their country in the wake of the horrific execution of two gay teens last week. [This is a "reposting" of the GayRussia.ru originally published yesterday]
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.
19:00 (UK) 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.
23
July 2005
