Amnesty doubtful Iran will maintain stoning moratorium
Washington, 7 August (IranVNC)—The Human rights group Amnesty International today expressed doubt about whether Iran would successfully enforce a moratorium on stoning, which it announced on 5 August.
By: IranVNC
Published: Thursday, August 07, 2008
AMNESTY – IRAN – STONING
21:08GMT—5:08PM/EST
Washington, 7 August (IranVNC)—The Human rights group Amnesty International today expressed doubt about whether Iran would successfully enforce a moratorium on stoning, which it announced on 5 August.
[Judiciary Spokesperson] “Ali Reza Jamshidi indicated that the provisions for stoning may have been removed” in a draft law before Iran’s Majlis [parliament], Drewery Dyke, Iran Researcher at Amnesty international said. But he added, “it remains to be seen” if the pledge to halt executions by stoning will be honored.
Iran’s Judiciary chief Ayatollah Hashemi Shahroudi announced a moratorium on stoning in 2002, but judges have occasionally given out such sentences during the past six years.
Dyke also expressed concern that the Iranian government had not matched the announced moratorium on stoning with additional measures to ensure that adultery would not be punished by other forms of the death penalty.
“Iran is indeed a prolific user of the death penalty, coming second only to China in the records we [Amnesty International] have been keeping,” Dyke said. Iran has further failed to provide “sufficient details regarding due process…followed” in death penalty cases, he added.
Dyke said Amnesty international had discerned a rise in the use of the death penalty in regard to Iran‘s minorities, particularly the country’s ethnic minorities. Of particular concern was a “security court” under the direct supervision of the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, that Iran had convened in the southeastern province of Sistan-va-Baluchistan as a measure to combat drug trafficking. The court, he emphasized, does not appear to be “constituted by any law that was recognizable” or ratified by Iran’s Majlis [parliament].
Amnesty international and other human rights organizations have repeatedly called on Iran to halt executions by stoning and other forms of torture. The UN General Assembly censured Iran in 2004 for these practices. Iran, however, continues its liberal use of the death penalty. Amnesty International says Iran executed 187 people between 1 January and 29 July of 2008.
Sources: IranVNC correspondent, Amnesty International
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