Mr Bean attackers face flogging

BBC News ^ | 09/05/2001

[dighton]

An Iranian court has sentenced two members of a revolutionary group to flogging and jail terms for disrupting a performance by an Iranian version of the British comedy character Mr Bean.

The men were among 50 activists from the hardline Ansar-e Hezbollah party who burst into a theatre in the north-eastern city of Mashhad on 27 July, according to the official Iranian news agency, IRNA.

The group disrupted the show, entitled Iran's Mr Bean, starring famous Iranian comic Hami Reza Mahisefat, beating their chests in a traditional Shi'a sign of disapproval, the agency reported.

Police had to be called to break up scuffles between the demonstrators and theatre-goers, in which seven people were hurt, IRNA said.

'No limits'

The leader of Ansar-e Hezbollah, Hamid Ostad, was sentenced to five months in jail and 25 lashes, while his accomplice, Ali-Reza Rezaie, was sentenced to 92 days in jail and 15 lashes, Judge Mohammad Shams-Gilani told IRNA.

"Both were tried for (the crime) of disrupting the social order," the judge was quoted as saying.

Judge Shams-Gilani said: "This group knows no limits and they do everything they like. We will take action against any destructive groups," the agency reported.

The judge told IRNA that police want to question 10 other members of Ansar-e Hezbollah in connection with the case.

Ostad and Rezaie have 20 days in which to appeal against their sentences, he said.

[adversarial]

wait a minute
in order to protest....they flogged their own face?

and somebody stopped them?

[tet68]

Feces flogging? Isn't that kinda messy?
Gives new meaning to "Holy S**t!"

[Jonathon Spectre]

"Both were tried for (the crime) of disrupting the social order," the judge was quoted as saying.

Disrupting the social order.

Sorry, at a loss for words.

[dighton]

If I have two beans, and then I add two more beans, what do I have?

[jellybean]

If I have two beans, and then I add two more beans, what do I have?

Gas?

[general_re]

If I have two beans, and then I add two more beans, what do I have?

[piasa]

I don't know but if you add some ham you'll have a rather meager bowl of pork n' beans ... but it will still serve nicely as terrorist repellent.

[piasa]

fyi

[bert]

One more time.....

I think you are confusing the current fanatic led abberation with the longer term Persian culture. I think the Belgian was referring to the long term rather than the short term.

I don't compare the present radicals who bar theater doors and fire the place with what preceeded Khomeni.