GAY TEENAGE EXECUTION WAS TRULY BARBARIC BOYS FILMED ON THEIR WAY TO THE GALLOWS AGONISING DEATH BY STRANGULATION LASTED 1-3 MINUTES ANTIQUATED NOOSE AND NOT ENOUGH COILS EXECUTIONER CLUELESS AS TO WHAT TO DO YOUNG RELATIVE WATCHING AND AT THE LAST MINUTE THE BLINDFOLDS WERE REMOVED ! When Gay groups voiced their outrage at the execution of two Gay teenagers by the Iranian Government last summer ( click here for our earlier report ), they were blissfully unaware of the true barbarity of the hanging. The picture of the "hanging lorry" ( see enlarged photo (no6) below ) has only recently been circulated on the internet ( Doug Ireland weblog October 2005 ). One of our team showed it and the other photographs to a friend who was researching a book on hanging methods. She was deeply shocked. The style of execution where the victim is pushed off the back of a lorry was of a type rarely, if ever, heard of in Iran before but which may have been practised by the Taliban in Afghanistan. A similar method, employing a horse and cart, was also used in Britain at Tyburn but outlawed over two hundred years ago ! The photographs ( see below ) clearly show that a short drop execution method was used. The two boys were made to walk up on to the back of a lorry, were each attached to a noose and then the vehicle moved off. This would have left them suspended in agony for up to several minutes before they would have lapsed into unconsciousness. A "short drop" means a drop of only one or two feet, which usually causes the victim to suffer more since it is not long enough to break the neck but creates enough force to sever the neck muscles and skin. According to Professor Stuart Banner, even in the case of a normal drop hanging the results can be horrific. "As the rope encircled their necks, or as the force of the drop wrenched the larynx from the trachea, they lost the ability to breathe. The mouth and nose turned dark purple. The eyes bulged monstrously wide. Convulsions extended gradually throughout the body. Asphyxiation took several excruciating minutes." In the case of these boys a drop of around eight feet or almost three meters would be normally required to ensure a relatively quick end but as you can see from the pictures this is clearly not the case. It's also noticeable that the rope used is of the antiquated hangman's noose type, which is centuries old, and tends to cause death by gradual strangulation rather than the quicker methods employed in most other countries which still retain death by hanging as a capital punishment. The number of coils above the noose was also minimal. When the drop occurs, they slide down and the force of impact can, if sufficient, break the neck which means the victim is immediately rendered unconscious. However, while it's impossible to be precise, they seem to have used just four to five coils above the noose which would minimize the impact force and lengthen the time taken for the victims to die. The traditional noose is normally comprised of from five to thirteen coils, with a larger number preferred to increase the chance of a quicker, less prolonged, death. They also seem to have been blindfolded at a much earlier stage than would be normal. You will notice that at least one of the boys, and presumably both, are led from the van blindfolded ( see photo 2 below ). Typically, in most countries, a prisoner would not be blindfolded or hooded until the very last moment just prior to the noose being put around their neck. This is because, although they will see the gallows, their executioners and the crowd, it is generally accepted that most prisoners are more frightened by not knowing what is happening. You will also notice how the blindfold begins to come off one of the boys just moments before his execution ( Photo 3 below ). But more disconcerting is the fact that in the final photograph showing them hanging, you can not see any evidence of the blindfolds. This is suprising since you can clearly see, in the photograph taken prior to execution, strands of the blindfold hanging to one side of the head on both boys. However in the final picture there is no evidence of a blindfold on either boy. It is as if some sadistic executioner decided to remove the blindfolds at the last moment ( the exact reverse of the normal procedure ). Perhaps so the crowd could better witness the agony of their deaths.  Photo 3 - Blindfold slips on boy left - Nooses are of barbaric old hangman's type AND with too few coils Photo 4 - Blinfolds clearly visible on both boys - Executioner (left) seems uncertain of what to do. Photo 5 - Young relative may have been forced to watch. Photo 6 - Agonizing death from short drop and where are the blindfolds now ? It's possible the mark on the ground is urine or defecation from one of the victims, released in their final moments of struggle. Photo 7 - Tiny photo shown on the Iranian Al Quds newspaper website has been enlarged 50% and then 400%. It has been apparently taken from the lorry in the opposite direction from the above photograph and seems to show the boys struggling in pain. But it's unclear. Photo 8 - Designed to shock: A vast crowd watches from every building and conceivable vantage point. HOLLAND MAY COMMEMORATE NAZI DEATH TRAINS BY DEPORTING GAY MEN TO IRAN !* Right: Harshest penalties face new gay deportees. If the Dutch Government gets its' way, a Gay man faces possible execution in Iran as a consequence of a deportation court hearing on the sixty fifth anniversary of perhaps the most infamous date in Dutch history** - the introduction of Nazi martial law - which presaged the deportation of thousands of Gays, Gypsies and Jews to almost certain death in concentration camps ! 8 MARCH 1941 - The Nazis had announced their planned deportation of Gays, Jews and Gypsies to concentration camps a few days earlier. Then, the Dutch Communist Party, Social Democrats and the Church joined forces to organize a general strike in solidarity. This lasted three days. Finally, the Nazis responded with a declaration of martial law on 8 MARCH 1941, which was enforced mercilessly and enabled them to carry out the deportations unimpeded. 8 MARCH 2006 - Sixty five years to the day later, as Dutch immigration minister Rita Verdonk plans to deport Gay asylum-seekers back to Iran after cancelling a six-month reprieve, the Dutch representative of the Persian Gay and Lesbian Organization, Saba Rawi, will be the defendant in a deportation hearing. He will be the first among many to face a similar fate. Saba was arrested, tortured and raped by Iranian police in the northern city of Rashd, but managed to escape the country soon afterwards. He entered the Netherlands in 2001, since when he has worked tirelessly for the cause of Gay liberation in his homeland. Only last July two Gay teenagers were executed in the Iranian city of Mashad using a barbaric "push off a vehicle" hanging, virtually unheard of since horse and cart executions two hundred years ago ( see our original report or our detailed update 1 March below - warning - both articles contain gruesome photographs ). The two boys are believed to have suffered several minutes of agony through strangulation before they died. Evidence also suggests that their blindfolds were removed at the last minute, so that the crowd could better witness their suffering. Another grainy picture appears to show the two boys struggling as the lorry drove off, leaving them hanging but still conscious. DON'T LOOSE YOUR FIGHTING SPIRIT Remember how you risked your lives to stop deportations sixty five years ago - Meetings were held in every office and every major shop and train station. Nobody went to work. When tram drivers and conductors were forced to work at gunpoint, the trams were overturned by strikers and women sat down on the tracks so that the Nazis would not succeed. For three days the Dutch fought the Nazis over deportations - all that is asked today is three minutes of your time. Political journalist and activist Doug Ireland is asking people to " phone, fax, e-mail, or write immediately on Saba’s behalf to H.E. Boudewijn J. van Eenennaam, Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, at The Royal Netherlands Embassy, 4200 Linnean Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008. The phone number is 202-244-5300; the fax number is 202-362-3430. The ambassador can be reached via e-mail at webmaster@netherlands-embassy.org." If we do nothing, what will be the next headline heading Holland's way - * "Holland" is used here as short hand for the Netherlands, even though literally it refers to just the local area. No comment in the above article is intended to imply anything regarding the attitude or intention of Holland's local government officials. The deportation plan of the Dutch Immigration Minister, Rita Verdonk, depends on approval in the Dutch Parliament and by the courts. Since this article was written Rita Verdonk has subsequently backtracked on her earlier plan, and GayEgypt.com is currently unaware of whether this plan still remains open to consideration and debate in the Dutch parliament. **After receiving a complaint from one reader we should like to stress that these deportations followed the invasion of the Netherlands by German forces on 10 May 1940 and that the vast bulk of the blame lies on German government officials and only a tiny minority of Dutch collaborators. As we make clear a huge section of Dutch society bravely challenged these laws by calling a general strike. The whole point of the analogy is the irony that sixty five years later, the Netherlands might take a course opposite to that its' people decided on in 1941 when they so bravely challenged Nazi martial law. ***Better known in Amsterdam as Sinterklaas. |