Two Iranians Sentenced to Death for…Alcohol Consumption
- Posted on June 26, 2012 at 8:20am by
Sharona Schwartz
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Alcohol confiscated (Photo from Iranvij via PBS)
Two Iranians were sentenced to death for the repeat offense of drinking alcohol, according to Iranian media reports. Since the 1979 revolution, the Islamic Republic has operated under Sharia law where consumption, production and sale of alcohol is illegal.
The Guardian provides more details from the Iranian press:
The two, who have not been named by the authorities, have each previously been lashed 160 times [80 times each] after twice being arrested for consuming alcohol. Being convicted for the third time makes them liable for the death penalty.
The head of the judiciary Seyed Hasan Shariati, based in Iran’s north-eastern province of Khorasan Razavi, told the semi-official Isna news agency that the supreme court had upheld their death sentences and that officials were preparing for their execution.
“Two people who committed the offence of consuming alcohol for the third time have been sentenced to be executed. The verdict has been confirmed by the supreme court and we are preparing to administer it,” he said.
Under Iranian Sharia law, certain crimes such as sodomy, rape, theft, fornication, apostasy and consumption of alcohol for the third time are considered to be “claims of God” and therefore have mandatory death sentences.
The Guardian explains — by comparison — that in non-alcohol related cases such as theft and lesbianism, capital punishment is handed out only if the individual is a previous offender and has been previously punished three times for the same crime. For alcohol, the death penalty can be considered on the third offense. Shariati, the head of the judiciary, says:
“We will not show mercy in alcoholic beverage offenses,” he said, “and we will sentence the offenders to the harshest letter of the law.”
Executions for violations of Iran’s alcohol laws are believed to be rare, according to Radio Free Europe. RFE quotes Iran’s Shargh newspaper which reports that the last death penalty handed down for a repeat offender in an alcohol case was in 2007. That sentence was overturned after the convict expressed contrition.
Despite the alcohol ban and extreme penalties, there is a reportedly active black market in Iran for these drinks. PBS reports that as many as 20 million gallons of alcohol are smuggled into the country every year and an unknown amount is produced in home distilleries.
According to The Guardian:
Despite the ban, many people in Iran drink alcohol, usually a homemade liquor called araq, which contains 45% pure ethanol. It is usually mixed before consumption and can be dangerous because of the ethanol used in its distillation.
Hosts who throw parties call an alcohol vendor who delivers it to the door. Western alcohol is smuggled to Iran and can be found in underground markets but can be costly.
Non-Muslim minorities in Iran including Christians are allowed to consume alcohol and use it in religious ritual, though must do so privately.
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Comments (69)
barber2
Posted on June 26, 2012 at 10:10amSharjah Law : the Muslim substitute for self-control.
Report Post »Detroit paperboy
Posted on June 26, 2012 at 10:36amThese people are frustrated in every sense of the word……no booze, no women in bikinis, no nothing…..no wonder theyre so angry all the time…….
Report Post »G-WHIZ
Posted on June 26, 2012 at 12:12pmYeh!! These-2 will NOT do that …again! I betcha! Wonder why they have no drunk-drivers?! Duh!
Report Post »dmerwin
Posted on June 26, 2012 at 5:33pm“We do not have alcohol users or gays and this is how we make sure”.
Report Post »teddrunk
Posted on June 26, 2012 at 10:05amGood thing the Kennedy’s were just your typical drunken Catholics. Heck, Old Joe made some of his fortune from it. Ted would of been dead several times over.
Report Post »Verceofreason
Posted on June 26, 2012 at 5:10pmThis world and America would be a better place today if George W Bush had remained
Report Post »a drunk and a cokie.
Detroit paperboy
Posted on June 26, 2012 at 9:14amSounds like where mayor Bloomberg is headed……..
Report Post »Sloburn
Posted on June 26, 2012 at 9:11amBut smoking opium is ok, go figure.
Report Post »Gonzo
Posted on June 26, 2012 at 10:02amAnd 10 packs of cigarettes a day are hunky dory.
Report Post »Joyzee
Posted on June 26, 2012 at 9:09amThis Happens’ because Iranian people Let it Happen, where is there Revolution! the people must over throw this Radical clerical government Give them their own punishment.
Report Post »Gonzo
Posted on June 26, 2012 at 10:36amWhen you read about stuff like this, you would think a revolution could be a possibility. But then Egypt is heading the other direction. It’s a backwards part of the world, with exception of Israel who they all want to destroy.
Report Post »Sidhekitten
Posted on June 26, 2012 at 3:13pmThey tried, but we did them dirty, El Presidente preferred to support the vile bastards that have been in charge in Iran since 79. So, when Iran actually lets the missiles fly he will act surprised stating that he actually did not believe that they wanted to vaporize Isreal and us.
Report Post »momrules
Posted on June 26, 2012 at 9:09amI would lay a wager that after the two men were condemned to death for alcohol consumption their judges went back to their offices and had a drink.
For most people in power their creed is *do as I tell you to do but I’ll do what I want to do.*
Report Post »Gonzo
Posted on June 26, 2012 at 11:06amThey are just following the example Mohamed set for them.
Report Post »barber2
Posted on June 26, 2012 at 9:09amGuess Iran has a special religious One Step Program….
Report Post »pma_guy
Posted on June 26, 2012 at 9:06amSo what do we do about the beer summit??
Report Post »TROLLMONGER
Posted on June 26, 2012 at 9:03amIf the evangelicals and/or Mormons ran this country the same kind of punishment would be upheld.
Report Post »Gonzo
Posted on June 26, 2012 at 10:02amYou are a fool.
Report Post »Nasado
Posted on June 26, 2012 at 10:30amHmm, thats funny because it was Utahs vote that ended prohabition. But don’t let facts and history get in the way of your useless, ignorant little infintile mind trying to attack a belief system that you know absolutly nothing about.
Report Post »OlderCowGirl
Posted on June 26, 2012 at 12:06pmShows that you don’t know anything about Christians.
Report Post »JACKTHETOAD
Posted on June 26, 2012 at 2:29pmAttention whore.
Report Post »jnw325
Posted on June 26, 2012 at 4:30pmHard to believe that a sane adult would come up with that remark… where do you get your fact? please state your case, make your point. Or is it just easy to make stupid remarks with no substance?
Report Post »Vader234
Posted on June 26, 2012 at 4:47pm@ Trollmonger
“If the evangelicals and/or Mormons ran this country the same kind of punishment would be upheld.”
Romney is a Mormon so are you going to vote for Obama? Paul can’t win.
Report Post »(Oh and we Mormons don’t kill people for drinking)
Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}
Posted on June 26, 2012 at 8:49amThe future of America if Obama has his way.
Report Post »Verceofreason
Posted on June 26, 2012 at 5:13pmThat makes absolutely zero sense. He drinks on the WH lawn.
Report Post »Go away.
BlazeGlory
Posted on June 26, 2012 at 8:44amWhat a waste of life. They could have endeavored to reach for something much greater in Iranian culture, like being suicide bombers.
Report Post »DIVINEPROVIDENCE1776
Posted on June 26, 2012 at 9:01amThe majority of the Iranian people love America and the western way of life. It is their tyrannical government who are the psychos, like the US. I pray for the Iranian people and their freedom.
Report Post »G-WHIZ
Posted on June 26, 2012 at 12:18pmThis is also a good way for them,to [not] need hospitalization or ‘Bama-type” insurance. You wat insrance….CHOP—PLOP!….oops!……NEXT?!.
Report Post »chnswstr
Posted on June 26, 2012 at 8:43amSee? the burqua will come in handy! The women can keep their drinking under wraps.
Report Post »Sleeve
Posted on June 26, 2012 at 8:43amWhat a terrible excuse of a religion islam is. Every one that i have ever met that is islamic is well off their rockers…. Islam is murder! Just give then a reason!
Report Post »Preparing for civil Unrest
Posted on June 26, 2012 at 8:43amAfter working last night I shall consume some beer for mu fellow muslim brothers.Jesus made wine :) and I feel bad for the good people of Iran who do not have the right to choose.
Report Post »philipzhao
Posted on June 26, 2012 at 8:42amNo alcohol in White House !
Report Post »13th Imam
Posted on June 26, 2012 at 8:42amLet’s send Jack and Bud and Jim and Miller to Iran. It would be cheaper than bomb’s.
Report Post »biohazard23
Posted on June 26, 2012 at 8:40amWow. Don’t let Mayor Gloomberg get any ideas from this. After all, this is just the Iranian govt forcing the populace into knowing what‘s good for them and what isn’t.
Report Post »KidCharlemagne
Posted on June 26, 2012 at 8:36amNot all that dissimilar to what the federal government did during the 13 years of Prohibition:
———————————————————–
The little-told story of how the U.S. government poisoned alcohol during Prohibition with deadly consequences
Deborah Blum
Friday, Feb. 19, 2010
It was Christmas Eve 1926, the streets aglitter with snow and lights, when the man afraid of Santa Claus stumbled into the emergency room at New York City’s Bellevue Hospital. He was flushed, gasping with fear: Santa Claus, he kept telling the nurses, was just behind him, wielding a baseball bat.
Before hospital staff realized how sick he was—the alcohol-induced hallucination was just a symptom—the man died. So did another holiday partygoer. And another. As dusk fell on Christmas, the hospital staff tallied up more than 60 people made desperately ill by alcohol and eight dead from it. Within the next two days, yet another 23 people died in the city from celebrating the season.
Doctors were accustomed to alcohol poisoning by then, the routine of life in the Prohibition era. The bootlegged whiskies and so-called gins often made people sick. The liquor produced in hidden stills frequently came tainted with metals and other impurities. But this outbreak was bizarrely different. The deaths, as investigators would shortly realize, came courtesy of the U.S. government.”
Report Post »http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/medical_examiner/2010/02/the_chemists_war.singl
USPATRIOT101
Posted on June 26, 2012 at 8:33amYou can beat the crap out of your woman, just don’t do it with a cool one in your hand.
Report Post »progressiveslayer
Posted on June 26, 2012 at 8:32amAnd the same mentality that’s going to execute those men are now running Egypt,see what you can look forward to Egyptians?
Report Post »philipzhao
Posted on June 26, 2012 at 8:39amWho has the stick now to turn the Nile red ?
Report Post »lqtm
Posted on June 26, 2012 at 8:29amKeep all religion out of law.
Report Post »Fubared
Posted on June 26, 2012 at 8:54amKeep shariah and liberalism in the asylum where it belongs. Together at last.
Report Post »teddrunk
Posted on June 26, 2012 at 10:28amKeep Muslims out of America.
Report Post »thegreatcarnac
Posted on June 26, 2012 at 8:27amWell….I guess getting a rum and coke in Tehran is out of the question.
Report Post »lqtm
Posted on June 26, 2012 at 8:27amThat’s theocracy for you. Keep America secular.
Report Post »Fubared
Posted on June 26, 2012 at 8:51amAin’t that what democracy looks like? Need to send in the rainbow coalition with a bunch of smirnoff, a twister game and some crisco.
Report Post »Pontiac
Posted on June 26, 2012 at 1:39pmWhat, no moral utopia for America? You would think Christians would love Iran…
Report Post »blanco5
Posted on June 26, 2012 at 8:27amSoooo, Iran has NO gays and NO alcoholics?
Report Post »philipzhao
Posted on June 26, 2012 at 8:40amNo soda larger the 32 oz. !
Report Post »lordkresh
Posted on June 26, 2012 at 2:50pmThat is what they want you to believe. In fact most of the population is into sodomizing young boys. If you have ever been in that region of the world(Afghanistan) the truth will be made readily apparent to you.
Report Post »Ron Staiger
Posted on June 26, 2012 at 8:24amAfter reading that story, I need a drink!
Report Post »