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Iranian Police Arrest Man Accused of "Spider Killings"
TEHRAN, July 26 (News Agencies) - Iran's police on Thursday put an end to 12 months of anxiety in the holy city of Mashhad by announcing the arrest of a man who has confessed to killing 16 prostitutes in a series of murders dubbed "spider killings".
Saeed Hanayi is 39, married and has three children, the state IRNA news agency reported, quoting the nation's police chief Mohammad-Baqer Ghalibaf.
Hanayi was arrested Wednesday and confessed to the murders of 16 prostitutes in Mashhad, Iran's second largest city, Ghalibaf said, adding that three more prostitutes had been murdered by others previously arrested.
The body of the latest victim was found late Sunday in Mashhad's Samarghand district.
She had been found choked with her own headscarf and wrapped in her black chador, the full-length Islamic cloak, like all the previous 18 victims.
Police had formed a special team to track down the killer or killers of the women, aged between 25 and 50, all of whom had criminal records for drug use and prostitution.
Ghalibaf said the accused had murdered the victims at his home while his family was away.
"He did not abuse his victims and apparently was seeking revenge," said the police chief, explaining that drivers in the suburb where the prostitutes walked the streets had several times harassed the man's wife.
According to Ghalibaf, police were able to arrest Hanayi after a prostitute recently managed to escape the serial murderer and provide the police with information.
He said that although Hanayi "had not had a sexual relationship with the victims," police had discovered in his medical history that he had "on numerous occasions visited a physician for impotence and psychological issues."
Ghakibaf Hanayi had even confessed to having occasionally verbally "warned" the women to stop their trade, and on one occasion provided financial aid to a prostitute who said she was selling herself because of "economic problems."
On Tuesday, Iranian police said they had rounded up some 500 prostitutes over the past week in Mashhad to protect them from the killer or killers.
Mashhad members of parliament asked the authorities to shed all possible light on the matter and Intelligence Minister Ali Younessi was called in by the parliament to speak about the murders.
All forms of prostitution have been banned in Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, but the profession has made a comeback in recent years, much to the distress of authorities.
Iran's press regularly reports on the breaking up of prostitution rings and brothels in Tehran and other provinces by the police, and also has taken steps to raise awareness of the problem of prostitution among girls who run away from abuse at home.
The killings had sparked not only serious concern among Iranians but also widespread outrage at the revelations of prostitution in Iran's holiest city.
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