.
Sources said the raid took place Feb. 28-29 and that the men have been jailed since without access to lawyers and without being charged with a crime.
Police reportedly referred the men to a medical examiner to look for ”evidence” they had engaged in gay sex.
Iranian law provides punishments up to death for penetrative sex between men. The last documented death sentences for consensual homosexual conduct were handed down in March 2005. It is not known whether they were carried out.
Iran is known to have executed several teens and men accused of engaging in sodomy, but in the cases that have been publicized in recent years the individuals were accused of other crimes as well, such as rape.
The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission has said it suspects that other charges are tacked onto sodomy cases to prevent the public outrage that would accompany executions carried out solely for the crime of consensual adult gay sex. The group also has said it
believes executions solely for gay sex are taking place out of the public eye.
But Human Rights Watch has said it cannot fully document any executions in Iran in recent years carried out solely for the crime of consensual adult gay sex, and that there is no evidence that charges of consensual homosexual conduct are converted to charges of rape in the judicial system.
Uppdaterad 2021-01-21
