The Iranian Supreme Court has overturned the murder convictions of six members of a prestigious state militia who killed five people they considered “morally corrupt.”Harsh....
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The last victims, for example, were a young couple engaged to be married who the killers claimed were walking together in public.
Members of the Basiji Force are known for attacking reformist politicians and pro-democracy meetings. President Ahmadinejad was a member of the force, but the Supreme Court judges who issued the ruling are not considered to be specifically affiliated with it.
Iran’s Islamic penal code, which is a parallel system to its civic code, says murder charges can be dropped if the accused can prove the killing was carried out because the victim was morally corrupt.
This is true even if the killer identified the victim mistakenly as corrupt.
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“The roots of the problems are in our laws,” said Mohammad Seifzadeh, a lawyer and a member of the Association for Defenders of Human Rights in Tehran. “Such cases happen as long as we have laws that allow the killer to decide whether the victim is corrupt or not. Ironically, such laws show that the establishment is not capable of bringing justice, and so it leaves it to ordinary people to do it.”
[ cf Iran Exonerates Six Who Killed in Islam’s Name ]
Tragically Diby ends the blog entry on the above with
Update: Well, damn. I thought I was being facetious.And this Ironically after quoting HanoiAnnie Coulter....
What if the problems need to be addressed, but not in the foolish way that they have been???