Iran hangs convicted killer of prosecutor in public

Iran hanged a man in public on Wednesday for shooting dead a deputy city prosecutor last year, the official IRNA news agency reported.

Jamshid Hadian was convicted of murder for the killing of Ahmad-Reza Tavalaie, a deputy prosecutor in the central town of Isfahan, in March 2009, IRNA said.

He was put to death at the same place where he killed Tavalaie, in front of Isfahan's Revolutionary Court, the news agency said.

"The murderer had 8 criminal cases in his past record," Isfahan prosecutor Mohammad-Reza Habibi said.

"The judicial system will take firm actions against bandits, terrorists and all those who disturb public order and security," Habibi said.

IRNA said the death sentence was carried out after it was confirmed by the supreme court. Iran usually implements executions inside prisons, but occasionally carries them out in public.

Murder, adultery, rape, armed robbery, drug trafficking, homosexuality and apostasy -- the renouncing of religion, in this case Islam -- are all punishable by death under Iranian sharia law practised since the 1979 Islamic revolution.

Amnesty International has listed Iran as the world's 2nd most prolific executioner in 2008 after China, and says it executed at least 346 people that year.

Earlier this month, the prosecutor of the northwestern city of Khoy was killed outside his home. On Tuesday, Iran said its forces had clashed with a Kurdish group behind the Jan. 18 assassination of Haji Gholizadeh and seized the man responsible for the incident.

Source: Reuters, January 28, 2010