This passes as justice in the Islamic Republic?

Today's New York Times reports:

The Iranian Supreme Court has overturned the murder convictions of six members of a prestigious state militia who killed five people they considered “morally corrupt.”

As the Times goes on:

[The] killers, who are members of the Basiji Force...[Their victims included] a young couple engaged to be married who the killers claimed were walking together in public.

As the Times also reports, the Basiji Force has also been known to attack reformist politicians and those who attend pro-democracy meetings. Who would have guessed, but President Ahmadinejad was a member of the force.

According to the Times:

[In Iran,] murder charges can be dropped if the accused can prove the killing was carried out because the victim was morally corrupt.

This is true even if the killer identified the victim mistakenly as corrupt. [Emphasis added.]

After a senior cleric ruled that Muslims could kill morally corrupt people, the Times notes that "some 17 people were killed in gruesome ways" including the five people killed by the exonerated Basiji group:

The six accused, all in their early 20’s, explained to the court that they had taken their victims outside the city after they identified them. Then they stoned them to death or drowned them in a pond by sitting on their chests.