Iran: two sisters face stoning

February 4, 2008: two Iranian sisters convicted of adultery face being stoned to death after the Supreme Court upheld the death sentences against them, the Etemad newspaper quoted their lawyer as saying.

The two were found guilty of adultery, a capital crime in Islamic Iran, after the husband of one sister presented video evidence showing them in the company of other men while he was away. "Branch 23 of the Supreme Court confirmed the stoning sentence," said their lawyer, Jabbar Solati. The Penal Court of Tehran province had already sentenced the sisters identified only as Zohreh, 27, and Azar, 26, to stoning.

Solati explained that the two sisters had initially been tried for "illegal relations" and received 99 lashes. However in a second trial they were convicted of "adultery."

The pair admitted they were in the video presented by the husband but argued that there was no adultery as none of the footage showed them engaged in a sexual act with other men.

"There is no legal evidence whereby the judge could have the knowledge for issuing a stoning sentence," Solati said, adding that he had appealed to the state prosecutor.
"The two sisters have been tried twice for one crime," Solati protested.

Zohreh's husband, who accused his wife and her sister in January 2007 of having extra-marital affairs, planted a camera in his house in a bid to catch them in the act.

Source: Agence France Presse, 04/02/2008

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