Iran executes ‘high number’ of gays, says German intelligence
The new intelligence data shows the high rate of executions among gays and lesbians since 2008. Last year's federal report does not contain a reference.
By BENJAMIN WEINTHAL19 July 2006 Global Day of Protest . Iran: Stop Killing Gays(photo credit: Wikimedia Commons)
The newly released domestic intelligence report for the city-state of Hamburg revealed that the Islamic Republic of Iran’s execution spree targeting gays and lesbians continues unabated.According to the report published on Friday, “Opponents of the [Iranian] regime as well as religious and ethnic minorities are regularly victims of state repression, which is reflected, among other things, in the high number of executions. These victims included people who were convicted and executed because of their same-sex orientation.”German intelligence reports from the country's 16 states and the federal government do not report on lethal homophobia in the Islamic Republic of Iran; Hamburg appears to be the exception. According to a 2008 British WikiLeaks document, Iran’s regime has executed between 4,000-6,000 gays and lesbians since the country’s 1979 Islamic revolution.The new German intelligence data establishes the high rate of executions among gays and lesbians since 2008. Germany’s federal intelligence service report from last year does not contain a reference to Tehran’s anti-gay laws. The city-state of Berlin’s new intelligence report covering 2019 also does not cite the Iranian regime’s efforts to purge gays and lesbians.Hamburg’s intelligence service appears to be the first domestic security agency to cite the Iranian regime's destruction of its LGBTQ community. The domestic intelligence service in Germany is a rough equivalent to Shin Bet, (Israel Security Agency).The Jerusalem Post was the first news organization to report outside of Iran in January, 2019, that the Islamic Republic publicly hanged a 31-year-old Iranian man after he was found guilty of charges related to violations of Iran’s anti-gay laws.In response to the Post article, then-US ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell wrote on Twitter: “Many of our European allies have Embassies in Tehran. This barbaric act must not go unanswered. Speak up.”Grenell has since launched an international campaign to decriminalize homosexuality across the globe.
