Suspect confesses to killing 16 prostitutes

A man has confessed to killing 16 prostitutes in Iran’s holy city of Mashhad, but three other murders blamed on him were carried out by copycats, a provincial police chief said today.

Three suspects had been apprehended for the other killings, Brig. Gen. Eskandar Momeni, police chief of Khorasan province, told reporters in Mashhad, the provincial capital.

Police identified Saeed Hanaei, a 39-year-old construction worker, as the main suspect in the serial killings on Thursday.

‘‘Hanaei suffered from impotence. He began killing after his wife was propositioned by a driver at a street near their home that was a hangout for prostitutes,’’ Momeni told reporters.

On Thursday at a site where one of the 16 bodies was found, Hanaei told reporters, ‘‘I killed the women for the sake of God, and for the protection of my religion because they were prostitutes and (were) corrupting other people.’’

‘‘I wouldn’t have bothered even if I had killed 150 women because I wanted to clean the holy city of Mashhad from corrupt women and prostitutes,’’ he said.

The crimes in Mashhad, 470 miles northeast of the capital, Tehran, baffled police for the past year.

Some 500 prostitutes were taken off the streets for protection.

Police said all the victims were convicted prostitutes and drug users.

Each was strangled with a headscarf.