Iran executed gay teenager in July: Amnesty International

[TomSea]

Iran executed gay teenager in July: Amnesty International

Iran executed a gay adolescent in July - the first confirmed execution of someone convicted as a juvenile in the Islamic Republic in 2016 - Amnesty International reported this week.

Hassan Afshar, 19, was hanged in Arak Prison in Iran's Markazi Province on July 18, after he was convicted of  "forced male-to-male anal intercourse" (‘lavat-e be onf’) in early 2015, the NGO said in a statement Tuesday.

Stefan Schaden, a LGBT rights activist and spokesman for the European 'STOP THE BOMB' campaign, told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday, “Consensual homosexual conduct remains illegal under Iran’s Sharia law and is punished with public flogging or even execution. While the Islamic State throws gays from rooftops, the Islamic Republic hangs them.”

Amnesty said the Iranian authorities received a complaint accusing Afshar and two other adolescents of forcing a teenage boy to have sex. Afshar, who  was arrested in December, 2014,  said that the same-sex relations were consensual and the accuser had freely engaged in prior homosexual relations.

Continued: http://www.albawaba.com/news/iran-executed-gay-teenager-july-amnesty-international-869726