Mohammed Bijeh

Mohammed Bijeh (Persian: محمد بيجه; 21 May 1970 – 16 March 2005) was an Iranian serial killer. He was convicted of raping and killing 54 young boys between June 2002 and September 2004, and was sentenced to 100 lashes followed by execution. All the boys were between 8 and 15 years old. The murder of children around Tehran was recognized as the largest criminal case in contemporary Iranian history and strongly influenced public opinion in the country.

Mohammed Bijeh
Born	21 May 1970 Torbat-e Heydarieh, Razavi Khorasan Province, Iran
Died	16 March 2005(2005-03-16) (aged 34) Pakdasht, Iran
Cause of death	Execution by hanging
Conviction(s)	Murder
Criminal penalty	Death
Details
Victims	54
Span of crimes	June 2002 – September 2004
Country	Iran
State(s)	Pakdasht

Biography

Muhammad Basjee, known as Bijeh, was born into a crowded family; he had six brothers and six half-brothers. When he was four years old, his mother died of cancer. His father was a merchant who married immediately after the death of Bijeh's mother. Bijeh couldn't remember his mother and said that his father was a barbaric person who beat him and chained his legs during childhood.

His father forced him to abandon school and work. He was 11 when he moved to Khatunabad with his family, where he began working at a furnace. Around then, he was raped multiple times.

Motivation

He stated that he had been raped and wanted to take revenge on the community, and that he had suffered on account of his mother's early death and the lack of affection he suffered in childhood. Bijeh commented on his main motive for the murders: "I suffered cruelly from childhood, and when I compared my life with others, I had to commit such acts".

Victims

List of victims of Bijeh:

Number	Name	Sex	Age	Date of Murder	Notes
1	Mehrab Mandani	M	10	23 June 2002
2	Arash Luloui	M	11	30 June 2002
3	Gholam Alizadeh	M	9	22 July 2002
4	Hamed Sadeghpour	M	13	1 August 2002
5	Nematullah Yarmohammadi	M	15	25 August 2002
6	Mehrzad Rudgari	M	14	13 October 2002
7	Esfandiar Ghayashi	M	10	2 December 2002
8	Mustafa Shafaat	M	12	21 January 2003
9	Ibrahim Arabi	M	11	4 February 2003
10	Mahmoud Batani	M	8	17 February 2003
11	Hadi Beygi	M	14	9 July 2003
12	Seyyed Reza Hejazi	M	12	6 September 2003
13	Latif Hasanpour	M	13	4 October 2003
14	Vahid Saidinejad	M	12	27 October 2003
15	Gharman Vaghefi	M	10	12 December 2003
16	Ravanbakhsh Shahbazi	M	11	28 December 2003
17	Saleh Sheykihan	M	13	3 January 2004
18	Rahim Agheli	M	11	23 January 2004
19	Majid Aragi	M	8	17 February 2004
20	Afshin Alavi	M	12	26 February 2004
21	Abdolhakim Ghafari	M	9	12 April 2004
22	Khosro Kianpour	M	11	14 April 2004
23	Mirza Goodarzi	M	14	20 April 2004
24	Izadyar Lashgari	F	12	25 April 2004
25	Jalal Maherlnagsh	M	15	4 May 2004
26	Mahdi Modersi	M	12	7 May 2004
27	Mostafa Mardani	M	9	10 May 2004
28	Mosa Nematizadeh	M	14	17 May 2004
29	Naser Norozi	M	11	18 May 2004
30	Mohammed Mohsen Vazin	M	8	25 May 2004
31	Jahangir Yadgari	M	11	15 June 2004
32	Bager Nazrian	M	11	21 June 2004
33	Yosef Mehnati	M	8	1 July 2004
34	Aref Sokoti	M	12	8 July 2004
35	Hassan Abulhassenian	M	10	13 July 2004
36	Yagob Yalvar	M	14	16 July 2004
37	Payam Honeryar	M	8	25 July 2004
38	Adel Varmrziari	M	11	26 July 2004
39	Zabiolah Nasernejad	M	12	31 July 2004
40	Homan Mostofi	M	9	2 August 2004
41	Parviz Golshai	M	8	7 August 2004
42	Mashalah Kabari	M	10	14 August 2004
43	Majid Kochchpour	M	11	16 August 2004
44	Parviz Faizi	M	12	21 August 2004
45	Farhad Farjam	M	8	26 August 2004
46	Sohrab Safari	M	11	5 September 2004
47	Javad Khalki	M	8	9 September 2004
48	Fathullah Niknam	M	14	11 September 2004
49	Alireza Azmoudeh	M	11	20 September 2004
50	Rasuol Brary	M	11	20 September 2004
51	Ehsan Baradarn	M	8	20 September 2004
52	Yahya Khanmohammedi	M	9	20 September 2004
53	Heydar Ali Siamansoury	M	11	20 September 2004
54	Abolhassan Salehy	M	13	20 September 2004

Arrest

Bijeh was arrested on 24 September 2004 and tried in Branch 74 of the Tehran Penal Code, under the presiding Judge Mansour Yavarzadeh Yeganeh and his four other lawyers, and by a majority of its judges. On 27 November 2004, he was sentenced to be executed. Bijeh said that if he were not arrested, he would kill 100 children. He said about his death sentence: "I do not deserve to be sentenced to death". Police arrested 16 of their officers in the handling of this case, and the judiciary also announced that Pakdasht prosecutors, as well as two investigators and a prosecutor's office, had filed a "brief" case.

Execution

On 16 March 2005, in Pakdasht, the town near the desert area where the killings occurred, in front of a crowd of about 5,000, Bijeh's shirt was removed, and he was handcuffed to an iron post, where he received his lashings from different judicial officials. He fell to the ground more than once during the punishment but did not cry out. A relative of one of the victims managed to get past security and stabbed Bijeh. The mother of one of the victims put a blue nylon rope around his neck, and he was hoisted about 10 metres in the air by a crane until he died.

See also

• Asghar the Murderer
• List of serial killers by country
• List of serial killers by number of victims

External links

• Iran's 'desert vampire' executed (BBC)