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Iranian Official Confirms Gay Executions

Iranian Official Confirms Gay Executions
by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff

Posted: November 13, 2007 - 11:00 am ET

(London) In a meeting between Iranian and British parliamentarians a high ranking Iranian politician has for the first time acknowledged that the Islamic state upholds the death penalty for homosexuality according to minutes of the meeting obtained by The Times newspaper.

The disclosure came during a peace conference - the Inter-Parliamentary Union - in May.

The Times obtained the minutes of the meeting under Britain's freedom of information law.

LGBT rights groups have reported for more than a year that gays were being executed but the government in Tehran has repeatedly denied the public hangings were for homosexuality.

In 2005 two young men hanged in a public square in northern Iran after were alleged to have been found guilty of homosexuality. (story) The government claimed they had been convicted of kidnapping and raping a male teen.

In May a western LGBT organization for gay Iranians says it has learned police have arrested as many as 87 gays at a private house party. (story)

Some international gay rights groups believe that more than 4,000 lesbians and gay men have been executed since the Ayatollahs seized power in 1979.

During the May meeting of the Inter-Parliamentary Union British MPs questioned Mohsen Yahyavi a member of his parliament’s energy committee about the reports.

The minutes, The Times reports, show that Yahyavi responded that gays deserve to be executed or tortured and possibly both,

"[He]explained that according to Islam gays and lesbianism were not permitted," the record states.

"He said that if homosexual activity is in private there is no problem, but those in overt activity should be executed [he initially said tortured but changed it to executed]. He argued that homosexuality is against human nature and that humans are here to reproduce. Homosexuals do not reproduce."

British Members of Parliament said they were shocked by Yahyavi's attitude.

"It is of great concern that these attitudes persist and we made it clear what we felt," Ann Clwyd, a Labor MP and head of Britain’s delegation told The Times.

In September President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad drew jeers and laughter during a speech at Columbia University when he declared there were no homosexuals in Iran. (story)

"In Iran we don't have homosexuals like you do in your country. We do not have this phenomenon. I don't know who's told you that we have it," Ahmadinejad said.

©365Gay.com 2007

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