Stoning should be abolished and all stoning convictions should be immediately overturned

international | gender and sexuality | press release Thursday August 19, 2010 14:59 by Mina Ahadi - International Committee Against Stoning

For Immediate Publication.

According to a report disseminated by the International Committee against Execution, in addition to Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, at least 21 others in the Islamic Republic's prisons are living with the nightmare of a stoning conviction. At any moment, their sentences could be implemented. These verdicts should be overturned immediately and this despicable punishment against humanity should be abolished everywhere and forever.

The Islamic regime of stoning, for the duration of its rule, has stoned at least 150 people; these are only the numbers that have been announced by the regime's media or have been gathered through reliable sources. The real numbers are much higher than this. The names of those known to be condemned to stoning in the Islamic Republic's jails, as announced by the regime itself, is as follows:

1-Sakineh Mohammadi Aahtiani
2-Zeynab Heydari 28 years old
3- Changyz Rahimi
4- Robabe
5- Kheyriyeh Valanya
6- Shahnaz 35 years old from (Karaj)
7-Ferdoas B.
8- Kobra Babayi
9- Iran Eskandari
10- Masumeh Sadeghyan
11- Hajar
12- Naghi Ahmafi (Mazandaran)
13- Mohammad Ali Nvid Khamami
14- Sarimeh Sajjadi(Ebadi) 30 years old (Orumiye)
15- Bu Ali Janfeshani (Orumiye)
16- Azar Bagheri (Was arrested and sentenced to stoning at the age of 15 and now is 19 years old)
17- Maryam Ghorbanzade who was recently forced to abbort her fetus in order to facilitate her stoning
18- Khanom Hashemi Nasab (Mashad)
19- A woman called by the initials M KH (Mashad )
20- Ashraf Kalhori 40 years old , mother of four
21- Fatemeh (Tehran)
22- Saba Abdali 30 years

One of the convicted, Azar Bagheri, was only 15 years old when she was arrested; she has been living in jail for four years with the nightmare of stoning. The regime has recently forced Maryam Ghorbanzadeh to abort her 6-month-old fetus [editor's note: this is apparently in an effort to hasten her execution, as pregnant women are usually allowed to deliver their newborns prior to being executed]. These kinds of atrocities can only happen under regimes like the Islamic Republic. A regime that stones people to death, that jails children and pregnant women and sentences them to execution, that lashes and tortures, should not be recognized anywhere or by any authority.

This kind of government has no place in the international community. This regime should be indicted on charges of 31 years of murder, torture, execution, stoning and lashing, on charges of 31 years of animosity towards humanity, and delivered to justice.

Mina Ahadi
minaahadi@aol.com
Tel: 0049-1775692413
International Committee Against Stoning
http://stopstonningnow.com/

International Committee Against Execution
http://notonemoreexecution.org/