Convicted serial killer hanged publicly in Iran

France Press

June 13, 2005

An Iranian man convicted of killing 10 truck drivers to steal their vehicles was hanged in public at the weekend in southeastern city of Zahedan, a newspaper reported on Monday.

Yaghoub Ali Mirshekari, 48, was executed on Sunday after he was convicted of stabbing or shooting the drivers on the road or at his own home.

“I used to smuggle out the trucks through Iran’s border with Pakistan and sell them with help of a Pakistani, who had provided me with the weapon,” he was quoted by the newspaper Iran as confessing.

Mirshekari’s five accomplices — close family members including his second wife, brother-in-law and son-in-law — were also sentenced to jail. He was nicknamed the “Yellow Scorpion” by his first wife, the report said.

So far this year, Iran has executed at least 32 people, according to an AFP tally based on witness and press reports.

In 2004 at least 159 people were executed in the Islamic republic — the highest rate in the world after China — according to human rights watchdog Amnesty International.

Iran’s capital offences include murder, rape, armed robbery, apostasy, blasphemy, serious drug trafficking, repeated sodomy, adultery or prostitution, treason and espionage.