Iran Publicly Hanged Child Killer Muhammad Bijeh After 20 Murders in 2005

1 articles · Updated · The Guardian · Oct 9

Muhammad Bijeh was publicly executed in Pakdasht, near Tehran, in March 2005 after being convicted of murdering 17 children and three adults, according to a first-hand account revisited in the latest report.
100 lashes preceded the hanging from a crane, and the spectacle drew a crowd urged out by police loudhailers; a victim’s relative also stabbed Bijeh on the platform before the execution.
The report contrasts that state-staged killing with Pete Hegseth’s stated plan to make the execution of Fort Hood gunman Nidal Malik Hasan public, saying people should be able to watch.
For the writer, who had also covered Timothy McVeigh’s closed-door 2001 execution in Indiana, the Iran hanging became an enduring example of how public executions can be used to display authoritarian power.