Mohammed Bijeh

Mohammed Bijeh ( Persian محمد بیجه Mohammad Bidsche ), known as the "desert vampire of Tehran " (* February 7, 1975 , † March 16, 2005 ), was an Iranian serial killer . Bijeh murdered at least 18 people, whom he confessed to killing in court: 16 boys aged 8 to 15 and two adults.

prehistory

When he was eleven years old, Bijehs family moved to the capital of the province of Khorasan , near the border with Afghanistan and Turkmenistan . Bijeh was the oldest of seven children and soon ended his school career to work in a nearby brick factory. He said he had been beaten many times by his mother, which eventually made him “euphoric” at the sight of blood.

Series of murders

Bijeh confessed in court that between March and September 2004 he raped and murdered 16 children . He and Ali Baghi (also known as Ali Gholampour ), who also worked in the Khorasan brick factory, got children to take them to the desert south of Tehran by offering them to hunt rabbits and foxes with them.

In reality, they stunned or poisoned their victims by beating them with stones and then sexually abusing them and then killing them. Then they buried the bodies in shallow graves in the desert. They often placed dead animals near the corpses to mask the smell of decay.

Ali Baghi was addicted to heroin and said he hesitated at first and only helped Bijeh after he threatened him.

Several of the victims came from impoverished Afghan refugee families who failed to report the disappearance of their children, apparently out of fear that they would be expelled from Iran.

Investigation, arrest, trial and execution

Khorasan residents said the police had not investigated the case vigorously and had demonstrated gross incompetence. Bijeh was temporarily detained for several months, but was released and given the opportunity to commit seven more murders. Eventually he was arrested again and charged with the murders.

The two-day trial took place behind closed doors, a measure designed to reduce further pain for the victims' families. The relatives in the courtroom nevertheless caused a commotion.

Ali Baghi was sentenced to 15 years in prison. Bijeh was sentenced to death for every single murder he confessed, as well as 100 lashes for the rapes. Four of the victims' families accepted blood money for the crimes and in those cases he escaped the death penalty, which did not save him from execution .

Bijeh was initially flogged in Pakdasht, near Tehran, while 5,000 people watched the action. The mother of one of the victims had been allowed to put a noose around his neck; then Bijeh was pulled exactly 10 meters into the air by a construction crane and slowly strangled while the crowd cheered.

literature

• Brad Steiger: Real Vampires, Night Stalkers and Creatures from the Darkside. Visible Ink Press, September 1, 2009, ISBN 978-1578592555 .
• Psychopedia: The Wikipedia Serial Killer Files

Web links

• Article about Bijeh's execution in the FAZ
• Article on BBC News
• Article in The Guardian