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Direct Link to Amnesty Report - Iran: End Executions by Stoning
Amnesty International
"The majority of those sentenced to death by stoning are women."
The pit in Aghche Kand where Ja'far Kiani was stoned to death in 2007© www.meydaan.org
15 January 2008
Eleven
people in Iran - nine of them women - are waiting to be stoned to death on
charges of adultery. Many have been sentenced after grossly unfair trials.
Amnesty International has called on the country's authorities to immediately
abolish this grotesque punishment, which is specifically designed to increase
the suffering of its victims.
Iran's Penal Code prescribes execution by stoning as the penalty for adultery
by married persons. It even dictates that the stones are large enough to cause
pain, but not so large as to kill the victim immediately. Amnesty International
is calling for urgent changes to Iranian law to ensure that no one
can be sentenced to death for adultery, whether by stoning or any other means.
"We welcome recent moves towards reform and reports that the Majles
(Iran's parliament) is discussing an amended Penal Code that would permit the
suspension of at least some stoning sentences," said Malcolm Smart,
Director of Amnesty International's Middle East Programme.
"But the authorities must go much further, and take the steps needed to
ensure that the new Penal Code neither permits stoning to death nor provides
for execution by other means for adultery."
Despite official claims that stonings have been halted - including a moratorium
issued by the Head of the Judiciary in 2002 - several have taken place, with
the latest only last year. Ja'far Kiani, a man, was stoned to death for
adultery on 5 July 2007 in the village of Aghche-kand, near Takestan in Qazvin
province. There are fears that Mokarrameh Ebrahimi, with whom he had two
children, may suffer the same fate. She is in Choubin prison, Qazvin province,
apparently with one of their children. A woman and a man are also known to have
been stoned to death in Mashhad in May 2006.
The majority of those sentenced to death by stoning are women. Women are not
treated equally with men under the law and by courts, and they are also
particularly vulnerable to unfair trials because their higher illiteracy rate
makes them more likely to sign confessions to crimes they did not commit.
Despite this bleak reality, human rights defenders in Iran believe that
international publicity can help bring an end to stoning. Courageous efforts
are being made by their Stop Stoning Forever campaign, whose efforts have
helped save five people from stoning (and led to another sentence being stayed)
since it began in October 2006.
These efforts have come at a price, with campaigners facing harassment and
intimidation by the authorities. Thirty-three women, including members of the
Stop Stoning Forever campaign, were arrested while protesting in March 2007
about the trial of five women's rights activists in Tehran.
Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all cases. The report issued
on 15 January, End executions by stoning, sets out the organisation’s concerns,
including for the 11 people currently known to be under sentence of death and
awaiting execution by stoning.
"We urge the Iranian authorities to heed our calls, and those of the
Iranians who are striving relentlessly to obtain an end to this horrendous
practice," said Malcolm Smart.
Download
Reports:
Index
Number:
MDE 13/001/2008
Date Published: 15 January 2008
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