Brussels, 15/01/2009 (Agence Europe) - In a declaration on behalf of the EU, published on Tuesday 13 January, the Czech Presidency urged Iran to halt the practice of execution by stoning. This statement follows the Iranian judicial authorities' confirmation of the stoning to death of two men at the end of December in the North-East of the country.
The Czech Presidency of the EU also calls on the Islamic Republic of Iran to “abolish the cruel and inhuman punishment of stoning from its legal code, and to ratify the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment”.
On 13 January, a spokesperson for the Iranian legal authorities confirmed that three men accused of adultery had been subject to stoning in Mashhad. According to the spokesperson, two of the condemned men died and the third survived by managing to escape the pit he had been buried in up to his waist. At least five Iranians have suffered this fate since 2002, the date up to which a decree by Ayatollah Mahmud Hachemi Shahroudi had suspended application of this punishment. The EU is keen to point out to the Islamic Republic of Iran that in August 2008 the Iranian legal authorities suspended executions by stoning. According to Islamic law in force, adultery is punishable by stoning. The condemned party is placed in a pit and buried up to the waist if a man, and up to the neck if a woman. If the condemned party manages to get out of the pit, their life is spared. The stones used must be neither too big nor too small. There are currently eight women and two men sentenced to death by stoning. (L.C./transl.rh)