I previously posted that two more executions of homosexuals were rumored to be planned for the end of August in the Iranian city of Arak. Doug Ireland has updated his report on those hangings with the news that indeed, two more hangings are planned. Two homosexual men, both 27, are to be hanged for the crime of raping another 22-year-old “bisexual” man who is a student at Arak University and the son of an army officer.

Ireland’s information comes from the editors of an underground gay publication. He reports:

It is not known with certainty at this time whether the two men are guilty of the crime with which they were charged, as the families of the two men have refused to speak with anyone outside the country. While the gay source in Arak cited above claimed the charge “seems to be true,” the Iranian gay publication’s editors who cited this source also warned that “the courts [in the Islamic Republic] always add to gays’ so-called crimes.”

An Iranian scholar who has spent considerable time studying sexuality in Iran told this reporter, “In Iranian society, where even dating between men and women is not allowed under the Islamic Republic, rape is a daily occurrence, so great is the level of male sexual frustration. It is quite likely that the two men from Arak under death sentence did not even consider whatever they did to the third man ‘rape.’”

Ireland also reports that the defendants did not have enough money to pay their lawyer, and their defense suffered greatly as a result. The executions are set for August 27 or 28.

Two More Executions Planned in Iran [gay city news]