WUNRN
IRAN - STONING CONTINUES IN IRAN
15 could still die in horrific sentence after
being allegedly convicted of adultery.
8 July 2010
Twelve Iranian women and
three men are on death row awaiting execution by stoning despite an apparent
last-minute reprieve for a mother of two who had been facing the horrific
sentence after being convicted of adultery.
Human rights groups and activists
welcomed a wave of international publicity and protests over the case of
Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, 43, who was awaiting execution in the western
Iranian town of
The Iranian
embassy in
However, there are still concerns
over her plight. In a previous case a prisoner who was to be stoned was instead
executed by hanging.
Speaking to this paper Mohammadi
Ashtiani's son Sajad, said his mother – whom he had spoken to by telephone –
believed the pressure on her behalf might succeed, although he had not heard of
any reprieve. "The campaign for her release is going very well," he
said. "They gave me permission to talk to her and she was very thankful to
the people of the world for supporting her. I'm very happy that so many have joined
me in protesting this injustice. It was the first time in years I heard any
hope in my mother's voice."
Without a
reprieve, Mohammadi Ashtiani would be buried up to her neck before being
pelted with stones large enough to cause pain but not so large as to kill her
immediately. Iran routinely censors information
about executions, but all the 12 other women on death row have been convicted
on adultery charges, as has one of the three men.
Azar Bagheri, 19, was arrested
when she was 15 after her husband accused her of seeing another man. She has
been subjected to mock stonings along with partial burial in the ground.
Ashraf Kalhori, 40, also
sentenced to death by stoning, was forced to confess to a relationship with her
husband's murderer, and has been in
In one especially gruesome case,
Maryam Ayubi, another alleged adulteress, fainted while being ritually washed
before her execution in 2001 and was stoned to death while strapped to a
stretcher. Outrage over that led to the marking of 11 July as the annual
international day against stoning – which will see demonstrations at the
Iranian activists say the tragedy
is that the families of those sentenced to death often ignore them. "It
doesn't matter to them whether the charge of adultery is true or not because
the honour of the family is tainted so they forget the poor creature awaiting
death," said Soheila Vahdati, who is now based in
"It's not possible to talk
about these prisoners in public because their families don't want their names
mentioned or their pictures published. Their families don't want to defend them
neither. Mohammadi Ashtiani's case is amazing because her children are
campaigning for her courageously and said that their mother is innocent."
Shammameh Ghorbani, who is
awaiting stoning, begged not to be freed from prison because she feared being
killed by her family.
Shadi Sadr, an acclaimed Iranian
lawyer, said it was hard to know exactly how many people were still facing
stoning. Last year the Iranian parliament passed a law banning it, but the
powerful Guardian Council has been silent on the issue.
"Many women are kept in
prison because the government is very scared of the public attention,"
Sadr said. "One of my clients has been there for eight years and her
family have abandoned her."
Publicity helps. "The only
reason the Iranian government has not carried out stoning sentences on all
these people is that it is afraid of Iranian public reaction and international
attention," said Sadr.
The embassy said in its
statement: "This kind of punishment has rarely been implemented in
The 12 women on death row also
include Mariam Ghorbanzadeh, 25, Iran Iskandari, 31, Kheyrieh Valania, 42,
Sarimeh Sajadi, 30, Kobra Babaei, and Afsaneh R.
Mohammadi Ashtiani was convicted
of having "illicit relationships" with two men. But her lawyer,
Mohammad Mostafaie, insisted there was no evidence to justify an adultery
conviction. As a member of
William Hague, the foreign
secretary, added his voice to the outrage today, condemning a "medieval
punishment that has no place in the modern world". He added: "The
continued use of such a punishment in
"She has already faced the
disgraceful punishment of 99 lashes for adultery; her execution would disgust
and appal the watching world."
Actors Emma Thompson, Colin
Firth, Juliette Binoche and playwright Sir David Hare have backed the appeal to
halt the stoning. John Bercow, the Commons speaker, made a rare statement
condemning a "horrific" matter and a "grotesque abuse" of
human rights.
The International Covenant on
Civil and Political Rights, to which
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