Iran to scrap death by stoning

Iran’s judiciary has decided to scrap the punishment of stoning convicts to death.

Iran’s judiciary has decided to scrap the punishment of stoning convicts to death in draft legislation submitted to parliament for approval, the local press reported on Wednesday.

Judiciary spokesman Ali Reza Jamshidi was also quoted as saying that stoning sentences against several convicts had been suspended, with four commuted to either lashes of the whip or jail terms.

“In the latest version of the Islamic penal codes bill, which has undergone several modifications, such punishments are not mentioned,” Jamshidi said, the reformist Etemad newspaper reported, referring to both stoning and amputation.

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An Iranian rights group in July voiced concern at the fate of eight women and one man sentenced to death by stoning for adultery and urged the Islamic republic to halt their executions.

The Volunteer Lawyers’ Network, which represents the female convicts, said they were mostly from illiterate and under-privileged backgrounds and were condemned to death in the absence of a good defence.

The European Union has also said it was “deeply concerned” over the fate of the nine, but it was not known if they were among those whose lives have been spared.

“The implementation of stoning has been suspended for several people who have received this sentence,” Jamshii said, without giving a number.

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“Two of them have been pardoned by the supreme leader (Ayatollah Ali Khamenei) and then sentenced to about 10 years in jail,” he said.