Five Iranians convicted of rape hanged from cranes as crowds watch

Ali Akbar Dareini

Payam Amini, one convicted member of the gang dubbed the Black Vultures by police asked for forgiveness. “True, we are guilty but we didn’t kill anybody. We do not deserve to die, but I want everybody to forgive me”, he told reporters before the tow truck crane from which he dangled rose with a hydraulic hiss.

As he neared death another man, Amir Karbalaei, protested his innocence to the huge crowd that had been gathering since dawn to see him hang. Amir Fakhri and Farhad Aqnarian were hanged at a bus terminal in western Tehran.