News

Updated: Monday, October 05, 2009

14:05GMT—10:05AM/EST

Washington,
5 October (WashingtonTV)—An Iranian man and woman convicted of adultery
and sentenced to death by stoning have been freed on appeal, the ILNA
news agency reported on Monday.

The
report said that Gholamali Eskandari and Gilan Mohammadi were released
on Sunday from a prison in the central city of Esfahan, after their
defense lawyers won the appeal.

The two had spent six years behind bars.

Under
Iran’s Islamic law, adultery is punishable by stoning, despite a 2002
directive by then Judiciary chief, Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi-Shahroudi,
imposing a moratorium on the punishment.

But since then, at
least five people in Iran have been stoned to death, as the directive
has no legal weight and judges are free to ignore it, according to
Amnesty International.

In
August 2008, the Judiciary said it would remove stoning as a punishment
in Iran’s new penal code, the details of which have yet to be debated
by lawmakers, reports AFP.

The
United Nations, European Union and international rights groups have
called on Iran to abolish the sentence, saying its violates Iran’s
obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights, which forbi... >>>