News

TEHRAN (AFP) – Iran's judiciary on Tuesday confirmed that two men had been stoned to death for adultery in the northeastern city of Mashhad while a third struggled from the stoning hole and escaped with his life.

"As you saw in reports, there were three stonings carried out in Mashhad. They were convicted of adultery, that is an affair with a married woman," judiciary spokesman Ali Reza Jamshidi told reporters.

He said two of the men died in the executions carried out "about 20 days ago" while the third was spared after he managed to extricate himself from the stoning hole.

Under Iran's Islamic law, adultery is still theoretically punishable by stoning, which involves the public hurling stones at the convict buried up to his waist. A woman is buried up to her shoulders.

The convict is spared if he can free himself.

Despite a 2002 directive by the judiciary chief Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahrudi imposing a moratorium on such executions, five Iranians have reportedly been stoned to death in the past four years.

Jamshidi, commenting on the courts ordering stoning sentences, said "judges are independent and they are likely not to act to the judiciary chief's advice" as long as law remains unchanged.

Quoting rights activists... >>>