Iran street-parades 22-year-old man

ImageTehran, Iran, Oct. 25 – A 22-year-old man from the town of Varamin, southern Tehran, was street-paraded and sentenced to lashes for instigating trouble, a semi-official daily wrote on Monday.

The young man, only identified as Hashem M. (a.k.a. Hashem Sagi), was accused of “causing trouble”, drinking alcohol, disrupting national security, and taking part in scuffles, the daily Kayhan wrote.

It quoted the Varamin Police’s intelligence deputy as saying, “In accordance with the urgent plan to increase national security, which is going on from October 10 to November 9, seditious elements in this town are being rounded up”. The individuals are ordered by a court to be paraded in streets by police so that it “teaches a lesson to other such trouble-makers”.

Hashem was also sentenced to 74 lashes, three years in prison, and five years in exile by a Varamin court, the town’s police intelligence chief said.