A man who has been condemned as a thief by the Iranian regime was flogged in public on January 1 in the central city of Shahreza, a local state-run website reported.

Shahreza News quoted the city’s Revolutionary and Public Prosecutor as saying that the man was sentenced to public flogging for robbery.

“According to a sentence by the 103rd Branch of the Shahreza Criminal Court and after confirmations by the court of review, the sentence was carried out”, Amir Hossein Razazadeh said.

The Prosecutor said that the 23 year old man was flogged 74 times in the city’s Shohada Square at 11 am.

He said that the regime would use “all its capacity to maintain security”.

According to the report, the young man had robbed homes and stores since he was a teenager. A picture of the public flogging was also published by the website, showing a small crowd gathered around the man being flogged.

Last January, Iran’s Attorney General said that robbery cases had increased in Iran compared to previous years.

“According to the statistics of the judiciary and the police, unfortunately, robbery is second in terms of crimes in the society,” Montazeri said adding that theft accounted for up to 28 percent of all crimes in Iran.

He said that “unemployment” and the “closure of factories” were all effective in the higher numbers.

Around 80% of Iran’s population live under the line of poverty with many Iranian barely able to make ends meet.

Source » irannewswire