The convicted serial killer of sixteen prostitutes in Iran's holy Shiite Muslim city of Mashhad in 2000 and 2001 was hanged at dawn on Wednesday, judicial officials said.
Saeed Hanai, who confessed to killing women between the ages of 20 to 50 and all with drugs and prostitution records, was executed inside the Mashhad jail in the presence of the families of his victims, an official at the law courts in the northeastern city told AFP.
The serial killer strangled his victims with a scarf before abandoning their bodies around Mashhad, Iran's second largest city with five million inhabitants.
Prostitution, a thriving industry under the former Shah, however banned after the 1979 Islamic revolution, has been making a comeback as Iran experiences unemployment and economic woes.
Iranian media regularly report police crackdowns in prostitution networks. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
