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Two Iranians confess to murder of 22 children
12 Sep 2004 14:16:02 GMT
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By Christian Oliver TEHRAN, Sept 12 (Reuters) - Two Iranian brick-makers have confessed to killing 22 children and three adults, raping the young boys before murdering them, a legal official close to the case said on Sunday. Police have unearthed the bodies of 17 of the victims in shallow graves in desert scrubland south of Tehran, saying the killers disguised the smell of rotting flesh by slaughtering cats and dogs and leaving them to fester nearby. Branding the pair "jackals" and "vampires of the Tehran desert", newspapers showed pictures of the shaven-headed prisoners, aged 24 and 30, shielding their faces from photographers with their hands in cuffs. Police said although the men began to prey on children more than two years ago, the killings did not come to light because many victims came from illegal Afghan refugee families who would be scared to come forward. "Even though some of the children were missing for more than two years, their families reported them missing only a few days ago," the police Web site said. Police said the men were arrested last week on suspicion of murder. Two of the corpses discovered were adult men and one was an Afghan woman, according to the legal official. The young boys killed were aged between eight and 11. The official said the two labourers had confessed to the killing of eight more boys whose bodies were yet to be found. AFGHAN UNDERWORLD One million refugees from neighbouring Afghanistan form the backbone of Iran's black economy, working as cleaners and construction workers. Densely-populated and indigent south Tehran is an immigrant centre, blighted by high unemployment and widespread drug abuse. The brick-workers, identified as Mohammad Bijeh and Ali Gholampour said two Afghans were also involved in the killings. Three boys were abducted while they were playing football, reported the semi-official Iran newspaper. Other boys were led off into the desert with the promise of hunting foxes and wild dogs. Gholampour said he would beat the boys unconscious with a stone or a stick if they refused to have sex with him, according to the legal official. Two boys survived the attacks. One identified his assailant, the other remains in a coma. Murder and rape are punishable by hanging in the Islamic Republic. 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.
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