Woman to be stoned to death for adultery in Iran

Iran’s Supreme Court upheld the stoning death sentence against woman convicted of adultery in the southern city of Shiraz, an independent newspaper reported today.

The daily Etemad Melli, or National Confidence, reported that the court also upheld another death sentence, this one by hanging, against the woman who also was convicted of killing her husband with the help of a male accomplice.

The man was sentenced to 15 years in prison after he was convicted of being an accomplice in a murder. He also was sentenced to 100 lashes for adultery, but was not given the death penalty because he was married. The newspaper only identified the two by their first names.

Judiciary officials were not immediately available for comment. It was not known when the killing took place or when the two were convicted.

While the ruling is final, Iran’s judiciary chief or the country’s supreme leader are authorised to stop death sentences from being carried out.

Under Iran’s Islamic laws, adultery is the only capital offence punishable by stoning. A man is usually buried up to his waist, while a woman is buried up to her neck. Those carrying out the verdict then throw stones until the condemned dies.

In July, Iran stoned a man convicted of adultery to death after the sentence was upheld by the Supreme Court.

Stoning was widely imposed in the early years after Iran’s 1979 Islamic revolution, but it has seldom been applied in recent years, though the government rarely confirms when it carries out stoning sentences.

Reformist legislators have demanded an end to death by stoning as a punishment for adultery, but opposition from hard-line clerics has sidelined their efforts.