JTFMax:

UN "deeply concerned" about horror verdict in Iran.

The U.N. expresses "deep concern" over the death sentences handed down to lesbian activists Zahra Sedighi-Hamadani, 31, and Elham Chubdar, 24, in Iran.

For example, Liz Throssell, spokeswoman for the U.N. human rights office, said Friday, "We are deeply concerned about the death sentences handed down to two LGBT activists in Iran."

The two women were convicted on "vague and broad charges" of "corruption on earth," she lamented. This is the most serious charge in the Islamic republic's legal system, usually brought for violations of Sharia law.

In addition, she said, their trials appear to have been neither fair nor by the rule of law.

The two women are currently being held in a women's prison. According to activists, they are accused of "promoting" homosexuality. Homosexuality is banned in Iran. In addition, Iran's penal code explicitly criminalizes same-sex sexual acts for both men and women.

Thousands of people were executed.

Since the Islamic Revolution in Iran in 1979, thousands of people are believed to have been executed because of their sexual orientation, according to human rights organizations.

An accurate assessment is complicated because Iranian courts mix illegitimate or same-sex sex with sexual violence in their sentences. Independent reporting is often impossible, and many corrections are never made public.

In late January, news of the public execution of gay men Mehrdad Karimpour and Farid Mohammadi shocked the public. They had been sentenced to death "for sodomy." The charge: "Forced sexual intercourse between two men."

The men had initially spent six years on death row, then were hanged in prison in the northwestern city of Maragheh, about 500 kilometers from the capital Tehran.

Where homosexuality is punishable in the World

Red- Death penalty

Pink- Prison sentences

Yellow- Positive portrayal of homosexuality banned or censorship of LGBT content, Including in films and music

Prison sentences in

Jamaica

'Caribbean

islands