Iran: Kobra Najjar To Be Stoned To Death for Prostitution

international | gender and sexuality | news report

Friday August 08, 2008 21:57

by pat c

Kobra Najjar, an Iranian woman sentenced to death by stoning for adultery has lost her final appeal for amnesty. Iranian women’s rights activists working on her case saythat Kobra has exhausted all domestic legal remedies and that her execution by stoning could happen any time. Kobra is a victim of domestic violence who was forced into prostitution by her abusive husband in order to support his heroin addiction. He was murdered by one of Kobra’s “clients” who sympathized with her plight. Kobra has already served 8 years in prison as an accessory to her husband’s murder. The man who murdered her husband also served 8 years in prison and was free after paying blood money and undergoing 100 lashes, while Kobra faces imminent stoning to death for adultery - the prostitution her husband forced upon her. Yet another example of Iranian justice.

But things are getting worse. The regime's Islamic Assembly is set to ratify a bill that will further increase the number of crimes punishable by death to incude 'crimes' ‎deemed to 'disrupt public security' and to 'intensify the scheme of punishment for disrupting the mental security of society.'

The bill establishes that 'weblogs and sites promoting corruption and ‎apostasy are deserving of capital punishment.'

You can help Kobra:

Write to the Iranian officials below, calling for Kobra’s immediate release, the commutation of all sentences of death by stoning and the prohibition by law of all cruel, inhuman and degrading punishments .

President
His Excellency Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
The Presidency, Palestine Avenue, Azerbaijan Intersection, Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran
Email: dr-ahmadinejad@president.ir
via website: www.president.ir/email

His Excellency Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi
Head of the Judiciary
c/o Ministry of Justice
Park-e Shahr
Teheran
Islamic Republic of Iran
Email: iripr@iranjudiciary.org, irjpr@iranjudiciary.com and info@dadgostary-tehran.ir
Phone: +98 21 22741002, +98 21 22741003, +98 21 22741004, +98 21 22741005