TEHERAN - Iran on Sunday hanged in public in the central city of Arak a former police official found guilty of murder and executed another murder convict in prison, the Fars news agency reported.

Former police official Abolfazl R. was hanged at the scene of his crime for stabbing a man to death and raping his fiancee in the mountains outside Arak in December 2005, the report said.

‘He had approached the couple as a police official, showed a fake ID... tied up the victim and killed him by stabbing and striking his head with a rock,’ it said.

The second man, identified as Abolfazl M., was hanged in a prison in Arak for murdering two people.

Iran has hanged 16 convicts so far in 2008, according to the local media. At least 298 people were executed last year according to an AFP count compiled from local press reports.

Executions soared in 2007 amid a campaign which the authorities said was aimed at improving security in society and was a sharp increase on 2006 figures when Amnesty International recorded 177 people were executed.

Iran currently makes more use of the death penalty than any other country apart from China. Capital offences in the Islamic republic include murder, rape, armed robbery, serious drug trafficking and adultery.

Human rights groups have accused Iran of excessive resort to the death penalty, but the authorities say capital punishment is an effective deterrent that is used only after an exhaustive judicial process.