Police have closed down 70 brothels in the past seven months in the Shiite Muslim holy city of Mashhad in northeast Iran, a police chief said in Jomhuri-e-Islami newspaper today. The police commander for Khorasan province said the Mashhad raids were carried out since March and that the influx of prostitutes from central Asia to Iran's holiest city had shot up in recent years. In Tehran, police have arrested 30 members of a prostitution ring operating out of a hotel in an upmarket northern district, Jam-e-Jam newspaper reported.
After a police surveillance operation, 30 young men and women, including three suspected pimps were detained.
The paper said the female pimps were accused of luring young victims via Internet chat sites, promising girls rich husbands or trips to European countries. The hotel manager has been summoned for questioning, while a member of his staff has already been handed a three-year jail term. Iran's increasing economic woes have led to an explosion of prostitution, which is illegal in the Islamic republic, despite the threat of stiff jail terms and punishments such as "stoning".
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