| Mohammed Bijeh | |
| Birth Date: | 1974 |
| Birth Place: | Torbat-e Heydarieh, Razavi Khorasan Province, Iran[1] |
| Death Place: | Pakdasht, Iran |
| Death Cause: | Execution by hanging |
| Conviction: | Murder |
| Sentence: | Death |
| Victims: | 54 |
| Beginyear: | June 2002 |
| Endyear: | September 2004 |
| Country: | Iran |
| States: | Pakdasht |
Mohammed Bijeh (; 1974 – 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.[2] [3]
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.
He admitted that he had been raped and wanted to take revenge on the community, and that he suffered from his mother's early death and the lack of affection he suffered in childhood.[2] 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".[4]
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 |
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.[5] He said about his death sentence: "I do not deserve to be sentenced to death".[4] 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.[3]
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.[6]