TEHRAN, Iran (AFP)
- An Iranian appeals court has confirmed a five-year ban on an
international soccer player convicted of off-the-pitch antics in a
brothel, a court official told AFP on Tuesday.
However, the Tehran appeals court spared
22-year-old Mojahed Khaziravi the punishment of 99 lashes handed down by a
court after his arrest in June on charges of "immoral contacts with a
prostitution network". Khaziravi was arrested along with seven
other people over the brothel adventure. The female head of the vice gang
connected with the affair also had her sentence of 10 years in jail and
hefty fine confirmed by the appeals court, the judicial source said.
Other members of the gang were sentenced
to jail, lashes and fines.
Prostitution has been outlawed here since
the 1979 Islamic revolution, although the economic woes of recent years
have driven more and more young women to resort to selling their bodies. |