According to the Islamic Public News Agency, Judiciary Chief Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi issued a decree banning public executions.

"No execution should be carried out in public henceforth," Ayatollah Shahroudi said, according to the Media Center of the Judiciary.

Ayatollah Shahroudi's decree also banned publishing pictures of executions.

Some facts:

• Iran put some 300 people to death in 2007
• Human Rights Watch calls Iran the world's leading executor of children and juvenile offenders.
• In 2005, a 16-year-old girl was hanged in public for having what was called "illegitimate sexual relations."