By Kevin Kim
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

TEHRAN, Iran – Amnesty International on Tuesday urged Iran to abolish the “grotesque and horrific” execution of people by stoning to death. At least three people in Iran are said to have been stoned to death since 2002. Eleven more – nine of them women – are waiting to face a similar fate.

Under Iranian Penal Code, execution by stoning is the penalty for adultery by married persons. According to the Code, men are buried up to their waists and women up to their breasts before being pelted with stones until they die. Stones are deliberately chosen to be large enough to cause pain, but not so large as to kill the victim immediately. Victims typically die within 20 minutes.

The majority sentenced to death by stoning are women. According to Amnesty’s report titled “Iran: End executions by stoning,” women suffer disproportionately because “they are not treated equally before the law and courts… and they are particularly vulnerable to unfair trials because they are more likely than men to be illiterate and therefore to sign confessions to crimes they did not commit.” For example, one of the nine women facing execution was allegedly forced into prostitution by an abusive husband who was a heroin addict. She was sentenced to eight years in prison for being an accomplice to the murder of her husband by one of her clients, and is scheduled to be executed by stoning for adultery.

Despite the harsh reality, human rights activists in Iran are hopeful that international publicity can help bring an end to stoning. Amnesty says Iran’s parliament is already discussing an amended Penal Code that would permit the suspension of at least some stoning sentences. However, Amnesty’s Middle East and North Africa director Malcolm Smart believes the Iranian government should take further steps and ensure “that the new Penal Code neither permits stoning to death nor provides for execution by other means for adultery.”

Iran has one of the highest rates of execution in the world, but the Iranian authorities deny that executions are carried out by stoning.

For more information, please see:

BBC News – End death by stoning, Iran urged – 15 January 2008

Guardian Unlimited – Amnesty demands Iran ends ‘grotesque’ stoning executions– 15 January 2008

Amnesty International – Campaigning to end stoning in Iran – 15 January 2008

Reuters – Amnesty urges Iran to stop stoning executions – 15 January 2008

AFP – Amnesty calls on Iran to abolish death by stoning – 14 January 2008