Death Penalty News

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); July 13, 2023: State media have reported the public hangings of Mohammad Ghaedi Nasab and Sadegh Mahmoudi Baram for charges of moharebeh (enmity against god) and efsad-fil-arz (corruption on earth) in Fouladshahr, Isfahan province. According to the Judiciary’s Mizan news agency, two men were publicly hanged in Fouladshahr on 13 July. They were sentenced to death for charges of moharebeh and efsad-fil-arz by the Revolutionary Court and to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for participation in murder by the Criminal Court.

TEHERAN, Iran - Iran has amended its internationally condemned law on stoning convicted adulterers to death to allow judges to impose a different form of execution, according to the revision seen by AFP on Thursday. The controversial practice, in which stones are thrown at the partially buried offender, has provoked outcries from human rights organisations, international bodies and Western countries urging Iran to abandon it. An article of Iran's Islamic new penal code, published earlier this week, states that, "if the possibility of carrying out the (stoning) verdict does not exist," the sentencing judge may order another form of execution pending final approval by the judiciary chief. The article does not explain what is meant by the possibility of stoning not existing. In Iran, executions are normally carried out by hanging. Under Iran's interpretation of Islamic Sharia law in force since its 1979 revolution, adultery is punished by the stoni...

Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani brought out in front of cameras in December 2010 for an alleged  confession . 2 years after an international outcry erupted over her sentence of stoning to death, Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani remains imprisoned in north-west Iran apparently still facing a stoning sentence. Her lawyer, Javid Houtan Kiyan, arrested on account of his advocacy for her, remains held as a prisoner of conscience, and is reported to have been sentenced to a lengthy prison term. He is believed to have been tortured during his detention. Recent but unconfirmed reports suggested that the Iranian authorities no longer intend to implement the stoning sentence handed down to Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani in 2006. These reports highlight the need for clarity concerning her fate. According to a 25 June 2012 article in The Times [of London] newspaper, Mohammad Mostafaie, one of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani’s previous lawyers, said that he had heard that the stoning sentence had bee...

AI Index: PRE01/010/2012 - Iran must not execute a US national sentenced to death after an unfair trial , Amnesty International said today amid fears he could be executed within weeks. Amir Hekmati, an Arizona-born Iranian-American who had served as an Arabic translator in the US Marine Corps, was accused of spying for the CIA and sentenced to death for “collaboration with a hostile government”. His appeal against this conviction and sentence must be lodged within 20 days. Hekmati was held without access to his family, a lawyer or consular assistance after his arrest in August last year, in violation of international law. He was made to participate in a televised "confession" before his trial in December, breaching his rights to a fair trial even further. “Like many other detainees in Iran, Amir Hekmati did not receive a fair trial and we question the timing and political circumstances of this decision,” said Ann Harrison, Amnesty International’s interim Director for the ...

Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani brought out in front of cameras in December 2010 for an alleged  confession . In late December, reports appeared in the Iranian press apparently reiterating that Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, a woman facing execution in Iran, could be executed by hanging instead of stoning. This recent press coverage indicates that she remains at risk of execution, which could be ordered at any time. Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, a 44-year-old mother of two from East Azerbaijan province in north-west Iran, was arrested in 2005 following the murder of her husband. She was convicted in an unfair trial of "adultery while married" and separately of complicity in her husband's murder. Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani's initial 10-year prison term for these complicity charges may have been reduced to five years. If so, it would now have expired. "Adultery while married" is punishable by stoning. It is not known whether her lawyer's July 2010 request for...

Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani brought out in front of cameras in December 2010 for an alleged  confession . Authorities in Iran said Sunday they are again moving ahead with plans to execute a woman sentenced to death by stoning on an adultery conviction in a case that sparked an international outcry, but are considering whether to carry out the punishment by hanging instead. Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani is already behind bars, serving a 10-year sentence on a separate conviction in the murder of her husband. Amid the international outrage her case generated, Iran in July 2010 suspended plans to carry out her death sentence on the adultery conviction. On Sunday, a senior judiciary official said experts were studying whether the punishment of stoning could be changed to hanging. "There is no haste. ... We are waiting to see whether we can carry out the execution of a person sentenced to stoning by hanging or not," said Malek Ajdar Sharifi, the head of justice department of E...

Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani brought out in front of cameras in December 2010 for an alleged  confession . July 13, 2011: A woman sentenced to death by stoning in Iran is in "perfect health" and has been allowed to attend her mother's funeral, a justice official told IRNA state news agency. Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani "is in prison in perfect health... and like all inmates enjoys her full rights as a prisoner," IRNA quoted Malek Ajdar Sharifi, head of East Azarbaijan province's justice department, as saying. Sharifi added Mohammadi Ashtiani "meets with her family members regularly in accordance with regulations and in recent days she was given leave to attend her mother's funeral." The official did not elaborate on when and for how long Mohammadi Ashtiani was granted leave. In January, she appeared before a group of journalists working for international news networks during what judiciary officials called an "out of prison" visi...

Public hanging in Shiraz, Iran April 16, 2011 OSLO, Apr 21, 2011 (AFP) - Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere on Thursday blasted a sharp hike in public executions in Iran and the high use of the death penalty in the country. "The increased number of public executions using brutal methods such as suffocation by being hoisted up by a crane are particularly grotesque and not worthy of a modern society," Stoere said in a statement. He added Norwegian research showed Iran had executed 15 people in public so far this year, compared to 19 for all of last year. A foreign ministry spokesman told AFP the data was obtained through human rights activists in Iran as well as international organisations. Stoere added Norwegian figures showed Iran had executed a total of 187 so far this year, while the total number in 2010 had been as high as 682 executions. That toll is higher than an AFP count based on media reports that put at 101 the number of executions so far this yea...

German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad BERLIN, Feb. 22 (UPI) -- German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle has defended himself against criticism that he met with Iranian hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to free two German journalists. "Whoever criticizes this trip should tell that to the two who are now back in Germany," he said. Westerwelle Saturday flew to Iran to bring home two German journalists who had been sitting in an Iranian prison for several months. They were arrested last October while interviewing the son of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, whose death-by-stoning sentence for an adultery conviction drew international condemnation last summer. The affair had further undermined Germany's relations with Iran, which is shunned by the West for its controversial nuclear program and its crackdown on the domestic opposition. After months of negotiations, Tehran last week indicated that the pair, reporter Marcus Hellwig ...

Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani TEHRAN (ISNA)-An Iranian top Parliament Member Zohreh Elahian said death penalty of an Iranian woman accused of killing her husband was suspended. "Stoning verdict of Sakineh Mohammadi- Ashtiani has not been finalized and it is suspended at the moment, but she is sentenced to 10-year jail term," said the Chairwoman of Iranian Parliament Human Rights Committee in her letter to Brazilian new President Dilma Rousseff in which she explained some points raised by Roussef on Iran. Elahian said that stoning penalty of the Iranian woman is suspended since families of her husband have forgiven her, but she was sentenced to 10-year imprisonment. Mohammadi-Ashtiani was sentenced to stoning due to charges of having adultery and killing her husband. Elahian in her letter insisted that, "according to evidence the Iranian woman has betrayed to her family and killed her husband jointly with her beloved. She has confessed to her crimes during her trial p...

Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani (CNN) -- A woman convicted of murder and adultery and sentenced to die by stoning said Saturday she would sue the two German journalists who interviewed her son, Iran's government-backed Press TV reported. The men, identified only as a reporter and photojournalist, were arrested in October after they interviewed the son and lawyer of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, who was convicted of adultery in 2006 and sentenced to death by stoning. Her case has drawn sharp criticism from the international community. No date has been set for her execution. Ashtiani told reporters in the northwestern city of Tabriz that she planned to sue the German nationals, Press TV reported. The men, who work for the Bild am Sonntag newspaper, are charged with espionage and are accused of working illegally as journalists in Iran. Germany-based anti-stoning activist Mina Ahadi said that government and prison officials were also at the press conference. "This regime has a hi...

LONDON (Reuters) - More than 80 artists, academics and politicians including actor Robert Redford, British singer Sting and France's Bernard Kouchner on Monday called for the release of an Iranian woman sentenced to death by stoning. Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani has been accused of adultery and of being complicit in her husband's murder but her sentence to be stoned to death was suspended after an international outcry. "Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani has suffered enough," the signatories said in an open letter to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on the front page of The Times newspaper. "We, the undersigned, call on the government of Iran to release immediately Ms Ashtiani, her son Sajad Ghaderzade, and her lawyer, Javid Houtan Kian, from incarceration," they said. The European Union's foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, the leader of Britain's Labour party Ed Miliband, American actor Robert De Niro,...