Iran publicly executes a serial rapist convicted in dozens of cases

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — An Iranian man convicted of raping dozens of women over the past two decades has been publicly executed, state media reported Wednesday.

State-run newspaper IRAN said Mohammad Ali Salamat was hanged after Iran’s Supreme Court upheld his death sentence earlier in October. He was put to death at dawn on Tuesday at a cemetery in the western city of Hamedan.

About 200 women had accused Salamat, a 43-year-old who ran a pharmacy and a gym in the city, of rape. He is said to have committed the crimes over the past twenty years.

Reports from Iranian media said that in many of the cases, Salamat raped his victims after proposing marriage or going out with them. He is said to have given some abortion pills, which are illegal in Iran.

He was arrested in January in what was the largest number of rape cases ever attributed to a single perpetrator in Iran. After his arrest, hundreds of people gathered at the city’s Justice Ministry and demanded the death penalty for Salamat.

UN experts said in September that Iran is among the top countries in the world to carry out executions. The increasing number of executions in Iran has led to protests from human rights organizations.

Rape and adultery are among the crimes punishable by death in Iran. In 2005, Iran publicly hanged a 24-year-old man who had raped and murdered 20 children. In 1997, authorities hanged a 28-year-old man for the kidnapping, rape and murder of nine girls and women in Tehran.