Shocker: Iranians Release Woman Who Faced Stoning

Such moderation from the conservative Iranians.

I can already hear the calls for dialogue with the mullahs now that they've entered the 15th century.

Iran has freed a woman convicted of adultery who faced being stoned to death like her male partner whose execution last year caused international outrage, her lawyer said on Tuesday.

Mokarrameh Ebrahimi, who had spent a total of 11 years behind bars, was released from a prison in the city of Qazvin Monday night on the orders of Iranian judiciary's amnesty commission, lawyer Shadi Sadr told AFP.

She was freed along with the son she had conceived with her partner Jafar Kiani, whose stoning in July 2007 was carried out by the local authorities in apparent defiance of the central judiciary.

Under Iran's Islamic law, adultery is still theoretically punishable by stoning, which involves the public hurling stones at the convict buried up to his waist.

But a 2002 directive by judiciary chief Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi imposed a moratorium on such executions. Kiani's stoning in a village in the northwestern Qazvin province was the first such execution to be confirmed in years.

"It was a rare ruling," Sadr said of the surprise release.

"She still could not believe she was pardoned," Sadr said, adding that Ebrahimi had now returned with her four-year-old son Ali to her family in northern Iran.

The ISNA news agency, quoting judiciary sources, said Ebrahimi had been pardoned by supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei himself at the suggestion of Shahroudi.

Ebrahimi had been arrested on suspicion of adultery 11 years ago with her partner Kiani. The couple had reportedly been married to others while living together.

Thanks to Hot Air for the link.

Man Stoned to Death in Iran

These people are absolute savages. Great idea letting them have nukes.

Adulterer stoned to death: Iran

TEHRAN - Iran said today that a man convicted of adultery had been stoned to death in a village in northwestern Iran, the first time it has confirmed such an execution in five years.

"This case has been recently executed in the village that was mentioned," judiciary spokesman Alireza Jamshidi told reporters about the stoning of Jafar Kiani in the village of Aghche Kand near Takestan, in Qazvin province.

"The verdict was implemented because it was definitive," Jamshidi said, implying it was approved by the supreme court, which must uphold all execution orders.

Under Iran’s Islamic law, adultery is still theoretically punishable by stoning although in late 2002 judiciary head Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahrudi had issued a directive suspending the practice.

Under the punishment of stoning, a male convict is buried up to his waist with his hands tied behind his back, while a female offender is buried up to her neck with her hands also buried.

The spectators and officials attending the public execution start throwing stones and rocks at the convict, who is theoretically released if he is able to free himself.

In June, the Fars news agency reported that Qazvin’s justice chief had halted the stoning of a man and a woman in the province, believed to be the same man who has now been executed.

Rights activists seeking to stop the practice said Kiani had been arrested 11 years ago while living with Mokarrameh Ebrahimi, the woman who has also been sentenced to stoning.

Both were reportedly married to others at the time.

"The verdict on the woman has not been carried out. It is still halted," Jamshidi said of Ebrahimi who is being held in prison in Qazvin city with her two children.

The judiciary had up until now vehemently denied any stonings since 2002, although rights activists and press reports have on occasion claimed that such punishments have been carried out.

"The judiciary’s policy about stoning has not changed. It exists in our law. The judiciary head can order to stop it, sometimes it is carried out and the judge is independent," Jamshidi insisted.

Shahrudi’s directive to halt stoning came at a time when the European Union was making such a moratorium and other human rights reforms a condition for opening landmark trade negotiations with Iran.

A group of women’s rights activists headed by feminist lawyer Shadi Sadr have been campaigning to have the sentence wholly removed from the statute books.

The stoning brings to at least 110 the number of executions carried out in the Islamic republic so far this year, most of them by hanging and often in public.

Compassionate Islamofascism

Jimmy Carter, worst president ever, will probably hail this as a breakthrough and issue a call for dialogue.

Iran stays stoning sentence for couple

A man and woman have been sentenced to death by stoning for A man and woman have been sentenced to death by stoning for adultery in Iran but the judiciary has ordered a stay of execution, Iranian news agencies reported on Wednesday.

Hassan Qasemi, a judiciary official in Qazvin province, west of the capital, denied what he said were some media reports that the sentence would be carried out shortly, "When the judiciary head heard the news, he ... ordered a stay of sentence," Qasemi said. The penalty of stoning usually involves victims being buried up to their midriffs and then pelted to death with stones that are not big enough to kill instantly.

I'm sure this was just a clerical error and the couple will be stoned shortly.