Four Iranian gay men are due to be executed for sodomy under their nation's Shari'a laws, Pink News is reporting.
The four men -- identified by the Human Rights Activist News Agency in Iran as Saadat Arefi, Vahid Akbari, Javid Akbari and Houshmand Akbari -- are set to be hanged after their guilty verdict was approved recently by high court judges.
"I am horrified and saddened to have heard the news about these four men," London-based Iranian human rights lawyer Mehri Jafari is quoted by Pink News and LGBTQ Nation as saying. "Not only with regards to the execution which is about to take place, but the fact that is beyond our control."
The news comes just two days ahead of the release of a new report on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in Iran, which will highlight the problems they face in their own country and when they flee into exile, according to Gay Star News.
