Group cleared over Iran murders

[cigsandcoffee]

Source: BBC

Iran's Supreme Court has acquitted a group of men charged over a series of gruesome killings in 2002, according to lawyers for the victims' families.

The vigilantes were not guilty because their victims were involved in un-Islamic activities, the court found.

The killers said they believed Islam let them spill the blood of anyone engaged in illicit activities if they issued two warnings to the victims.

The serial killings took place in 2002 in the south-eastern city of Kerman.



Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6557679.stm

[cigsandcoffee]

1. For the record.

I do not believe the US should invade Iran. To do so would be madness.

I do believe that Iran is being led by a pack of assholes, though. When a nation's highest legal institution excuses the murder of people because the victims "weren't Islamic enough," then something is seriously fucked up in that country.

That's something that those who advocate fairness and tolerance shouldn't be quiet about.

[bemildred]

2. I think you have it right. nt

[Igel]

3. Other reports have it that the men just weren't part of an

"Islamic paramilitary force", but were Basij. Which means they have strong connections to the Islamist rulers of the place. The higher up in the court system, the more incest between the Guardian Council and the courts. (What's surprising is that the Guardian Council hadn't managed to make sure their malicious angels weren't protected from the beginning.)