MASHHAD, Khorasan Prov -- A serial assassin who pleaded guilty to strangling 16 street prostitutes was hanged at a prison court in this northeastern Iranian holy city on Wednesday morning.

Saeed Hanai, 39, a brick layer by profession, was sent to gallows with 12 murder convictions on his head. The families of four victims had demanded 'blood money', as permitted in the Islamic Sharia law, instead of death sentence.

The convict sounded repentant at the gallows, saying he had done wrong by killing the women. He also accepted the death sentence since he had 'killed several people' and that he knew death was the punishment for his actions.