It’s a way of death

Opinion: October 4, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

By Rasa Sowlat

Institute for War & Peace Reporting

TEHRAN

Despite judicial rulings against the practice and the massive international damage it does to the country’s image, the Iranian government appears incapable of stopping the practice of execution by stoning.

The most recent case to create an international outcry is that of Sakineh Mohammadi-Ashtiyani, who was convicted of committing adultery and sentenced to be stoned to death. In July, the execution was put on hold after the sentence attracted international attention.

For both married men and women, extramarital sex is punishable by death by stoning. In practice, the law is applied unequally, with women far more likely than men to be convicted and executed by being half buried in the ground and then pelted with rocks by a crowd.

Execution by stoning was first sanctioned in 1983 and confirmed again in 1991 and 1996.

Adultery

Iranian law makes it almost impossible to obtain a conviction for adultery. Both individuals must confess four times to having committing adultery. If either individual withdraws their confession, the case is dropped.

Otherwise, to obtain a conviction, prosecutors must present a number of witnesses who are willing to testify that they saw the couple engaged in a sexual act.

Even then, if the couple repents, a judge can offer clemency.

In practice, however, some judges base their rulings on a provision of the penal code that allows them to exercise their own “knowledge and judgment” in deciding a case.

Historically, stoning has been opposed by some of Iran’s most influential leaders.

In 1980, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, considered the father of the Islamic Republic, advised the prosecutor general not to authorize stoning as a means of execution.

In 2002, the head of Iran’s judiciary, Ayatollah Mahmoud Shahroudi, prohibited stoning. The order was issued in part to head off a United Nations resolution condemning Iran’s record on human rights.

Neither move, however, appears to have been enough to stop some judges from ordering executions by stoning.

There are few reliable statistics on the number of stonings that have occurred in Iran, or whether they are happening more frequently under the regime of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

One high-profile case was that of Jafar Kiani and Mokarameh Ebrahimi, convicted of adultery in the small town of Takestan in northwest Iran.

Kiane was stoned to death in 2007, despite specific instructions from chief justice Shahroudi prohibiting the execution. The life of the woman in the case was eventually spared.

Legally married

It was later reported that the couple had been legally married.

A new penal code, currently under consideration by the Guardian Council, makes no mention of stoning as a method of execution. But legal experts doubt that merely omitting it as a form of punishment will stop the practice.

So for now, at least, hard-line clerics and judges feel free to interpret Islamic law as they see fit. After all, no one here wants to appear soft on crime.

As Ayatollah Mesbah-Yazdi, one of the staunchest proponents of traditional Sharia rules and penalties, said in August, the government “must carry out Islamic decrees and penal orders — if a person steals, we must cut his hand off. ...”

Rasa Sowlat is a reporter in Iran who writes for The Institute for War & Peace Reporting, a nonprofit organization in London that trains journalists in areas of conflict. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune.