Iranian cleric praises hanging criminals

TEHRAN, July 27 (Reuters) A senior Iranian cleric praised today the country's judiciary for executing 16 men convicted for various offences including rape and kidnapping.

''The execution of those (convicts) was one of the best ...

political and cultural actions that has ever taken place,'' Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, a conservative cleric who heads the constitutional watchdog the Guardian Council told today prayer worshippers in Tehran.

Some 12 men convicted of various charges including rape, kidnapping and drug-smuggling were executed on Sunday inside Tehran's Evin prison, only a few days after four others were hanged for similar crimes.

Iranian police have arrested dozens of people in recent weeks as part of a regular summer crackdown on ''immoral behaviour''. A number of women have also been arrested for flouting Islamic dress code, imposed since Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution.

Tehran public prosecutor Saeed Mortazavi told state television that 17 more criminals who have been arrested in the the crackdown would be hanged soon.

Iran's 2003 Nobel Peace Laureate Shirin Ebadi criticised the hangings in a statement saying her human rights group was ''concerned that some people arrested for burning fuel stations (after Iran started rationing gasoline) were among those hanged.'' At least a dozen pump stations were attacked in June after the government started to ration fuel in the No. 2 OPEC oil producer.

''Such actions should happen again and people should support and follow it,'' Jannati said, adding that it was necessary in order to ''ensure the society's security''.

Iran has one of the highest rates of execution in the world, according to Amnesty International. Since the beginning of 2007, at least 124 people have been put to death.

State television on Sunday aired footage of the handcuffed convicts just before being hanged.

Amnesty says while it recognised Iran's right to bring to justice those suspected of serious crimes, the death penalty was a violation of the right to life and the ''ultimate form of cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment''.

REUTERS GT RN1735