Ali Talebi told IRNA the member gang, who were all arrested a onth ago, lured young girls to prostitution, committed rape, kidnapping, drug-trafficking, robbery and various other crimes against morals and social order. He said 15 others in the group have been sentenced to lashes of the whip which are to be carried out publicly. In July, authorities announced they had broken a gang that was abducting young girls in Qom, some kilometers south of Tehran, which members raped collectively.
Press reports in recent months said that an initial 13 members of the gang had been arrested and that three were still being sought for rape committed on a dozen girls. Prostitution, legalized in many western societies, is a crime under Iranian law with stiffer penalties imposed since after the Islamic Revolution. Victims are mostly runaways or young girls lured to the trade because of the promise of financial reward. Over the past year the Iranian capital has been receiving a number of reports of runaway girls ending up in the hands of prostitution gangs, human traffickers or murdered under suspicious circumstances.
Press reports had earlier said the number of runaways in Tehran has risen 30 percent in just 12 months, citing girls and boys as having fled from their homes for a variety of reasons. Meanwhile, Talebi said three convicted robbers are to have their hands severed. According to Islamic law enforced in Iran, thieves are to have four fingers on their right hand severed for recidivism.
In March, authorities in the holy city of Mashhad in northeastern Iran said they had cut off the forefingers of 20 thieves over the past two years and warned they would take a tougher line. Iran News Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.
