WOMAN, FOUR MEN HANGED

TEHRAN, Monday: A young woman pleaded in vain for mercy today before
being hanged at dawn with four men for drug trafficking in a poor
quarter of Tehran, watched by hundreds of people.

Fariba Tajiani-Emamqoli, 30, blindfolded and with her hands tied,
begged for pardon from the judges but her appeal was ignored and she
was hanged from one of five cranes set up in the eastern Khak-e Sefid
district.

Executed with her, less than four weeks after their arrest, were Ali
Alipour, Ibrahim Qaemshari, Ali-Kazem Aslani and Framan
Qaremani-Aazara, all aged about 30.

The whole process took 25 minutes, with the bodies being left for 10
minutes before being taken down.

Though executions are frequent in Iran, the hanging of a woman is
extremely rare.

The district was sealed off hours before the hangings were to take
place. Some 500 people, screaming "death to dealers", watched from
nearby, while other spectators gathered on the roofs of houses.

The five, found guilty of selling "large quantities" of heroin over a
number of years, as well as consuming it, were arrested in a police
swoop on Khak-e-Sefid on February 23.

The area, popularly known as "The Tumour" because of its lawlessness,
is a centre for urban migration from the countryside and has become a
refuge for drug dealers, car thieves and petty criminals.

After the police action, Jazireh Street, where today's executions
took place, was practically razed, hundreds of houses were pulled
down and thousands of people evicted.

Authorities say it will be turned into a park for women.

Iran is a key route for drugs on their way from Afghanistan and
Pakistan to the Gulf and Europe, and has become infected in its turn.
According to official figures, some two million of Tehran's
population of 60 million are addicts.