PAKDASHT, Iran, 17 March 2005 — An Iranian serial killer convicted of kidnapping, raping and murdering 21 people, most of them little boys, was publicly flogged and hanged south of Tehran yesterday before thousands of spectators, an AFP reporter at the scene said.
Mohammad Bijeh, branded “the vampire of the desert” in the Iranian press, was lashed 100 times, stabbed in the back by a furious brother of one victim before a blue nylon rope was placed around his neck by the mother of another murdered child. The 22-year-old killer, who remained calm and kept silent throughout the punishment, was then hauled into the air by a crane to cries from the crowd of “make him twist”. “Dance and think of what you did to our kids,” shouted one father, as Bijeh was throttled to death over several minutes. Hanging by a crane does not involve the neck being broken.
Few tears were shed during the hanging. Instead, the crowd vented its rage. “Hit him harder,” yelled Ali Khosravi, whose 10-year-old son Kayvan was killed and then burned by Bijeh. Bijeh also reportedly ate the leg of his one of his victims just to see what it tasted like. “This is the best day of my life. I would like to strangle him and burn him myself,” added Khosravi as stood holding the hand of his eight-year-old daughter Sarah.
Bijeh and his accomplice, Ali Baghi, were arrested in September 2004. Over a period of more than a year, they reportedly lured children into the desert by saying they were going to dig out rabbits or foxes from their burrows. The pair — who both worked in a brickworks — reportedly stunned their victims with blows from a stone, sexually abused them and buried the bodies in shallow graves in the desert south of Tehran.
Both were initially sentenced to hang, but in January the Supreme Court ruled that Baghi should instead serve 15 years behind bars. The crowd yesterday also called for Baghi to be hanged. “He killed my son. He confessed, he has to be executed,” said Ali Dad Azimi, the father of nine-year-old Ahmad.
Before being hanged, Bijeh was stripped of his shirt and stood against a post. His hands were tied around the post and he was lashed by several different plainclothes officials. The huge crowd, kept back by barbed wire and around 100 members of the security forces, chanted “harder, harder!”
After around 20 lashes, Bijeh started to buckle from the pain of his bloodied back but was able to redress himself. When Bijeh was placed in a position to be hanged, a young 17-year-old boy — the brother of victim Rahim Younessi — managed to break through the barrier and plant a knife in the killer’s back.
The mother of one of young victim Milad Kahani was then invited to place the noose around his neck as he stood there, his hands now tied behind him. According to the charge sheet read out at the execution, Bijeh was guilty of 21 killings. He had been declared “corrupt on earth” and handed 16 death penalties. However, relatives of the victims here said 26 children were murdered, and vowed the accomplice would also be killed if he ever makes it out of prison. As the spectacle ended and Bijeh’s body was taken away in an ambulance, the crowd, still angry, threw stones at police and soldiers.
