On
this date, 16 March 2005, a child serial killer, Mohammed Bijeh A.K.A the
Vampire of Tehran Desert was executed by hanging in Pakdasht, Iran. I will post
information about him from Wikipedia, murderpedia and BBC before giving my
comments.
Mohammed Bijeh
(Persian: محمد بيجه) (February
7, 1975 – March 16, 2005) was an Iranian serial killer. He confessed in
court to raping and killing 16 young boys between March and September 2004, and
was sentenced to 100 lashes followed by execution. All the boys were between 8
and 15 years old. In addition, he killed two adults.
Execution
On
March 16, 2005, in Pakdasht, Iran, the town near the desert area where the
killings occurred, in front of a crowd of about 5,000, Bijeh's shirt was
removed and he was handcuffed to an iron post, where he received his lashings
from different judicial officials. He fell to the ground more than once during
the punishment but did not cry out. A relative of one of the victims managed to
get past security and stab Bijeh. The mother of one of the victims put a blue
nylon rope around his neck, and he was hoisted about 10 meters in the air by a
crane until he died.
INTERNET SOURCE: http://murderpedia.org/male.B/b/bijeh-mohammed.htm
A.K.A.: "Hyena"
- "The Vampire of the Tehran desert"
|
Classification: Serial
killer
|
Characteristics: Rape
- Pedophile
|
Number of
victims: 20
|
Date of
murders: March-September 2004
|
Date of arrest: September
2004
|
Date of birth: February
7, 1975
|
Victims profile: 17
children (boys between 8 and 15 years old) and 3 adults
|
Method of murder: Blows
from a stone
|
Location: Tehran,
Iran
|
Status: Executed
by hanging in Pakdasht on March 16, 2005
|
Crowd Sees Rapist Hanged In
Iran
Associated Press
March 16, 2005
(AP) A young man
convicted of raping and murdering 16 boys was lashed 100 times, and then hanged
Wednesday in front of a large, angry crowd who pelted him with stones and
scuffled with police.
Mohammed Bijeh, 23,
confessed in court to raping and murdering the children, between March and
September 2004. Iranian media have said Bijeh burned the bodies of his victims,
all boys between 8 and 15.
Bijeh was sentenced to one
death sentence for each murder he confessed and 100 lashes of the whip for the
rapes.
An accomplice, Ali
Gholampour, was acquitted of involvement in the murders but was convicted of
taking part in some of the kidnappings, to which he confessed. He was sentenced
to 15 years in prison and 100 lashes.
Bijeh's verdict was carried
out in Pakdasht, a small, impoverished town about 19 miles southeast of Tehran,
after being upheld by the Supreme Court. It was the same town where the murders
took place.
Approximately 5,000
spectators — including women and children — gathered to watch the flogging and
hanging. Riot police circled the area.
Some in the crowd threw
stones at Bijeh as he was flogged, shirtless and hands tied to an iron pole. He
fell to his knees three times as he received the lashes.
A relative of one of the
victims broke police security and attacked Bijeh with a knife, wounding his
back before police dragged him away.
After the flogging, a rope
was put around Bijeh's neck and attached to a hook on a crane. The crane's arm
jerked upward and Bijeh's body dangled, drawing applause from the crowd.
Some people burst into
tears, crying out the names of their injured children. Some shouted,
"Shame on you, Bijeh!"
After about 20 minutes, the
body was lowered and a doctor confirmed Bijeh was dead.
Many in the crowd, some of
them other family members of the victims, repeatedly tried to approach Bijeh's
body but were prevented by riot police. Scuffles continued for at least half an
hour.
The case provoked national
outrage in Iran. Sixteen police officers were reprimanded for dereliction of
duty and the Interior Ministry criticized the police for failing to catch the
suspects after the first crime.
Many of the people in
Pakdasht supported the hanging.
"Public executions
reduce the occurrence of offenses. Bijeh destroyed many families. He deserved more
than death," said resident Zahra Khaleghi.
But Dariush Mehraban said
public hangings only promote violence.
"Many criminals have
been hanged, but offenses have never reduced. It's an ugly scene that a human
being is hanged even if he has committed many crimes. Revenge is not the
solution," said Merhraban, who watched the hanging.
Convicts are hanged in
public in Iran only if a court deems that their offenses deeply affected public
sentiment.
Iranian courts are
controlled by hard-liners. Iranian reformists say public executions hurt the
country's international image and reflect badly on Islam.
 |
Iranian child serial killers to be hanged in public
Thursday, November 18, 2004
LONDON, Nov 18 (IranMania) - Two Iranian men convicted of kidnapping and
murdering about 20 children in the desert south of Tehran have been sentenced
to be hanged in public at the scene of their crimes, the state news agency IRNA
said Wednesday.
Last month a Tehran court sentenced Mohammad Bijeh, the alleged
mastermind of the crimes, to be lashed and hanged, while his accomplice Ali
Baghi was ordered to be lashed and spend 15 years behind bars.
But after the two-day trial, which was interrupted by furious relatives
of the victims, the head of the judiciary Ayatollah Hashemi Shahroudi ordered a
re-trial of the pair given that one of them escaped death.
According to Iran's State Newsd Agency (IRNA), the head of the judiciary
in Tehran, Abbas Ali Alizadeh said that the pair had been found
"corrupt on earth" and would now both die for the crimes.
"They will be publicly executed at the very crime scene," he
was quoted as saying, but added the men can appeal within 20 days and the death
penalties were subject to supreme court approval.
The two are reported to have been convicted of killing between 19 and 22
people, most of them young children, around the impoverished town of Pakdasht
just south of Tehran.
The prosecution and families of the victims have demanded that both men,
dubbed "hyenas" or "vampires of the Tehran desert" in the
press, be executed.
The case has drawn huge media attention, with one reader writing to a
newspaper asking for the alleged killers -- who worked in brickworks -- to be
burned alive in a brick furnace.
The pair were arrested in September.
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 two 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. They also allegedly placed dead animals near their victims'
bodies to cover up the smell of the rotting corpses.
Reports have also said the pair picked some of their victims from poor
Afghan families who may have been living in Iran illegally, meaning that some
disappearences were not reported to police.
Police Officers Awaiting Trial
For Laxity In Serial Murder Case
October 24, 2004
TEHRAN -- A senior judicial official said here Sunday investigations
into charges of dereliction of duty against seven police officers related to
the tragic case of Pakdasht serial murders have been completed and forwarded to
courts, IRNA reported.
Abbasali Forati, the head of Tehran military courts, told reporters that
the two policemen failed to identify Iran's most ruthless assassins Mohammad
Basijeh (aka Bijeh) and Ali Gholampour (aka Ali Baghi) who raped and killed
more than 20 people, mostly children.
Gholampour has reportedly been acquitted of murder charges by a Tehran
court--a ruling many jurists believe was issued in a hurry.
The judicial official further said that the two policemen had also
ignored calls by local people to inspect one of the murder scenes. He said the
two are now in custody awaiting trial. Forati also said five more police
officers have been arrested on charges of derailing the investigations by
refusing to identify the murderers earlier at Tehran Police's Bureau of
Investigation. "These five officers are now in custody and their dossiers
have been completed and will be referred to a military court on Monday,"
he said, expressing hope that police officers found guilty of dereliction of
duty would be punished in proportion to their charges.
 |
|
The condemned collapsed twice during the
pre-execution flogging
|
Iranian serial child killer sentenced to death
October 14, 2004
TEHRAN - An Iranian judge has sentenced a man to death for killing 17
children, most of them young boys he raped first, and three adults, state
television reported.
They began to prey on children more
than two years ago in the town of Pakdasht, south of Tehran, where the pair
worked as brick makers.
But the killings did not come to light
because many victims were from illegal refugee families from neighbouring
Afghanistan who were afraid to come forward.
The trial was briefly halted earlier in
the day when relatives of one of the victims attacked Bijeh as he gave
testimony.
Family members began throwing chairs
and tried to grab him as he recounted how he kidnapped, raped and killed one of
his young victims.
Police whisked the two men out of the
courtroom.
"Such crimes were not committed
even by the Serbs against the Bosnians," sobbed the father of the boy
whose murder Bijeh was recounting, the ISNA students news agency reported.
The killers put dead cats and dogs near
the shallow graves of their victims to disguise the stench of the corpses.
Bijeh was convicted of 19 of the
killings and received 16 death sentences. Four families did not press for the
death penalty, agreeing to settle for blood money compensation instead.
One death penalty was for rape. As the
killers came from indigent families the state will pay the blood money to the
four families that demanded it.
High profile murderers are sometimes
executed in public.
Iran's last serial killing case ended
in 2002 with the hanging of the so-called "spider" from the
northeastern city of Mashhad who strangled 16 prostitutes with their
headscarves.
Trial of child killers halted by furious relatives
Tehran, October 13, 2004
The trial of two Iranian men accused of killing 20 people, mostly
children, had to be halted on Wednesday after relatives of the victims made a
furious courtroom stampede, witnesses said.
According to one witness, the angry scenes erupted as one of the alleged
serial murderers, Mohammad Bijeh, was calmly recounting to the courtroom the
horrific details of how he kidnapped, beat, raped and murdered one of the
children.
"He was completely calm and free of any remorse. He gave all the
gory details on how he killed his seventh victim. The family of the victim
then rose from their seats and ran towards him," said a witness.
"Then other relatives of the victims began shouting and running at
the accused. They wanted to kill the accused men with bare hands. The police
then quickly whisked the accused out of the court," the witness said.
"The courtroom was a mess and the hearing was halted."
Bijeh and his alleged accomplice Ali Baghi, dubbed "hyenas" or
"vampires of the Tehran desert" in the press, were arrested last
month and have been charged with killing and raping 17 children, two men and a
woman in the desert south of Tehran.
The trial of the two men, who worked in brickworks in Pakdasht, an
impoverished town south of Tehran, opened on Tuesday with the prosecutor and
victims' relatives demanding the death penalty.
The case has drawn huge media attention, with one reader writing to a
newspaper asking for the alleged killers to be burned alive in a brick furnace
and President Mohammad Khatami has ordered his interior minister to personally
investigate the case.
The pair allegedly stunned victims they had kidnapped with blows from a
stone, sexually abused them and buried the bodies in shallow graves in the desert
south of Tehran. They also allegedly placed dead animals near their victims'
bodies to cover up the smell of the rotting corpses.
Execution demanded as child killer trial opens
Tuesday, October 12, 2004
LONDON, Oct 12 (IranMania) - The trial of two Iranian men accused of
kidnapping, raping and murdering 20 people -- most of them children -- began in
Tehran on Tuesday with the prosecutor and victims' relatives demanding the
death penalty, Agence France Press (AFP) reported.
Mohammad Bijeh and his alleged accomplice Ali Baghi, dubbed
"hyenas" or "vampires of the Tehran desert" in the press,
were arrested last month and have been charged with killing and raping 17
children, two men and a woman in the desert south of Tehran.
According to Iranian media the two men were judged to be in their
"full faculty", meaning they could stand trial.
The trial of the two men, who worked in a brickworks in Pakdasht, an
impoverished town south of Tehran, is taking place behind closed doors due the
horrific nature of the crimes, state television said.
No further information on Tuesday's proceedings were available.
If convicted, the pair face execution, and reports said the prosecutor
and relatives of those killed called Tuesday for "the harshest possible
sentence".
The Iranian student news agency ISNA quoted the father of a young boy
who was one of the victims as complaining of irregularities in the case,
notably that Baghi was arrested at one point but then allowed free on bail.
The father, who was not named, also questioned whether the two were
merely a part of a larger group "dealing in children's body parts".
"We are ready to pay the judiciary as much as they want so they can
hand them over to us and we can deal with them," the man said.
The case has drawn huge media attention, with one reader writing to a
newspaper asking for the alleged killers to be burned alive in a brick furnace
and President Mohammad Khatami has ordered his interior minister to personally
investigate the case.
Over a period of more than a year, the men allegedly lured children into
the desert by saying they were going to dig out rabbits or foxes from their
burrows.
They then allegedly stunned their victims with blows from a stone,
sexually abused them and buried the bodies in shallow graves. They also allegedly
placed dead animals near their victims' bodies to cover up the smell of the
rotting corpses.
Reports have also said the pair picked some of their victims from poor
Afghan families who may have been living in Iran illegally, meaning that some
disappearences were not reported to police.
An announcement on the Iranian police website said 19 officers have been
reprimanded for "shortcomings" in tackling the case, with seven of
those reprimanded also referred to the judicial body dealing with the police. The
statement did not say what punishment the officers faced.
An Iranian judiciary spokesman, Jamal Karimi-Rad, was quoted on ISNA as
saying "two inspectors, an assistant public prosecutor and Pakdasht
prosecutor also evidently had some shortcomings in dealing with this
case."
INTERNET SOURCE: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4353449.stm
Iran's
'desert vampire' executed
An
Iranian serial killer who murdered at least 20 children has been executed in
front a large crowd of spectators.
Mohammad
Bijeh, 24, dubbed "the Tehran desert vampire" by Iran's press, was
flogged 100 times before being hanged.
A brother
of one of his young victims stabbed him as he was being punished. The mother of
another victim was asked to put the noose around his neck.
The
execution took place in Pakdasht south of Tehran, near where Bijeh's year-long
killing spree took place.
The
killer was hoisted about 10 metres into the air by a crane and slowly throttled
to death in front of the baying crowd.
Hanging
by a crane - a common form of execution in Iran - does not involve a swift
death as the condemned prisoner's neck is not broken.
Calm and
silent
The
killer collapsed twice during the punishment, although he remained calm and
silent throughout.
Spectators,
held back by barbed wire and about 100 police officers, chanted "harder,
harder" as judicial officials took turns to flog Bijeh's bare back before
his hanging.
Bijeh was
stabbed by the 17-year-old brother of victim Rahim Younessi, AFP reported, as
he was being readied to be hanged.
Officials
then invited the mother Milad Kahani to put the blue nylon rope around his
neck.
The
crimes of Mohammed Bijeh and his accomplice Ali Baghi had drawn massive
attention in the Iranian media.
They
reportedly tricked children to go with them into the desert south of Tehran by
saying they were going to hunt animals. They then poisoned or knocked their
victims out, sexually abused them and buried them in shallow graves.
They were
found guilty of the murders of between 19 and 22 people, but local people
believe the toll to be higher.
Baghi has
been given a 15 year prison term.
COMMENTS:
Although
I do not agree with Iran in using the death penalty for homosexuals, adultery
and apostate, I support it for murder, rape and terrorism. For this serial
killer who was given 100 lashes and executed by hanging publicly, he died a
slow and humiliating death. I personally feel that child serial killers need to
be humiliated and experience a painful death.
Why did the
abolitionists not stand outside the Iranian embassy of their own countries to
protest his execution? See The Black Vultures and hear from the victims’ families of this vampire.
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