By Ben Turner
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

TEHRAN, Iran – On March 17, the Iranian Judiciary Amnesty Commission released a woman sentenced to death by stoning.  Mokarrameh Ebrahimi, was convicted of adultery and had been in prison for the last 11 years, was released in the city of Qazvin.

Ebrahimi was released along with her four-year-old son whom she conceived with Jafar Kiani.  Kiani, also convicted of adultery, was stoned to death in July 2007.  Kiani was stoned to death despite a 2002 directive by judiciary chief Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi that imposed a moratorium on such executions. Kiani’s stoning was the first such execution to be confirmed in years.

Ebrahimi’s lawyer, Shadi Sadr, said that his client could not believe that she was pardoned.  “I cannot tell how the commission came up with this decision,” Sadr said. “Whether it was our defense, top clerics’ rulings against stoning or Ayatollah Shahroudi’s decree.”

“But you cannot deny the role of public opinion and domestic and international pressures,” said Sadr.  Sadr is a leading women’s rights activist and is campaigning to remove stoning from Iran’s law books.

According to Amnesty International, death by stoning is still legal under Iranian law.  Article 102 of the Iranian penal code states that men should be buried up to their waists and women up to their breasts while being stoned.  Another article prescribes the size of stone to be used.

Sadr said that Ebrahimi and her son had returned to northern Iran to be with her family.

For more information, please see:
AFP – Iran Frees Woman Facing Stoning For Adultery: Lawyer – 18 March 2008

AGI – Iran: Woman With Death Sentence Released With Son – 18 March 2008

BBC – Iranian Women Escapes Stoning Death – 18 March 2008

News.com.au – Woman Escapes Stoning for Adultery – 18 March 2008

Amnesty International – Amnesty International appeals against planned executions by stoning – 20 June 2007