URGENT ACTION
PUBLIC AI Index: MDE 13/095/2006
18 August 2006
Further Information on UA 203/06 (MDE 13/083/2006, 27 July 2006) - Imminent
execution
IRAN Ashraf Kalhori
(previously spelt as Kolhari) (f) aged 37
The execution by stoning of Ashraf Kalhori, which was scheduled to be carried
out by the end of July, has been temporarily stayed by the Head of the
Judiciary, Ayatollah Shahroudi. Ashraf
Kalhori remains under sentence of death.
Ashraf Kalhori was
sentenced to death by stoning for adultery, in accordance
with laws relating to married women. She was also sentenced to fifteen years'
imprisonment for allegedly taking part in the murder of her husband. Her
husband was killed in April 2002 after quarrelling with their neighbour,
Mahmoud Mirzaei. According
to Ashraf Kalhori, the
killing was accidental, but
police accused her of having an affair with her neighbour and encouraging the
attack. She reportedly confessed to adultery under police interrogation, but
later retracted her confession. Under Iranian law, either the eyewitness
testimony of a number of individuals - the number varying according to the
alleged act of adultery - or the repetition in court on four occasions of a
'confession', constitute 'proof' that adultery has taken place.
By law, Ashraf Kalhori
should serve her 15-year prison sentence prior to her
execution. However, at around the beginning of July, the order for the
implementation of her execution was issued, and it was reportedly scheduled for
the end of July.
Ashraf Kalhori’s lawyer,
women’s human rights defender (WHRD) Shadi Sadr, who
is leading a campaign against stoning in
Ayatollah Shahroudi, calling upon him to halt the
execution. The petition was
signed by more than four thousand people, including more than one hundred
Iranian women’s rights activists.
On or around 10 August, the Head of the Judiciary announced that he had
temporarily stayed Ashraf Kalhori’s
execution. Her case has been sent to the
‘Office of Monitoring and Follow Up’ (in Persian, Daftar-e
Nezarat a Paygiri)
for review.
Since her arrest in 2002, Ashraf Kalhori
has been detained in
prison. She has not seen her four children (aged between nine and 19) since her
arrest.
Ashraf Kalhori had
requested a divorce from her husband, but the request was
rejected by a Judge who ruled that she had to continue living with her husband
because they had children. Mahmoud Mirzaei was convicted of adultery, but was
sentenced to 100 lashes rather than execution by stoning, as he is an unmarried
man. However, he was also convicted of the murder of Ashraf
Kalhori’s husband,
for which he was sentenced to death. His death sentence cannot be carried out
for another nine years, when the youngest of the victim’s heirs reaches the age
of 18 and can decide to forgo their right to retribution and accept the payment
of diyeh (blood money) instead.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all cases as the ultimate
cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment and a violation of the right to life.
Amnesty International further believes that execution by stoning aggravates the
brutality of the death penalty and is a method specifically designed to
increase the victim's suffering since the stones are deliberately chosen to be
large enough to cause pain, but not so large as to kill the victim immediately.
The Iranian Penal Code is very specific about the manner of execution and types
of stones which should be used. Article 102 states that men will be buried up
to their waists and women up to their breasts for the purpose of execution by
stoning. Article 104 states, with reference to the penalty for adultery, that
the stones used should "not be large enough to kill the person by one or
two
strikes; nor should they should they be so small that they could not be defined
as stones". Death by stoning violates Articles 6 (concerning the right to
life)
and 7 (concerning the prohibition of torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading
treatment or punishment) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights (ICCPR). According to Iranian WHRDs, there are
several other women who
are under sentence of execution by stoning in
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