Iranian widow faces being stoned to death in days
gimmesometruth27
St. Fuckin Louis Posts: 23,303
this is getting its own thread apart from the other "death penalty" thread. this is a real case that warrants serious discussion, not the incessant "put a bullet in their head yada yada rah rah" rhetoric from that thread, because nobody would reply to it or give it serious thought over there. i think this is the most barbaric, inhuman and cruel punishment and it is torture. there is no evidence she even did anything other than the hunch from the judge.
Iranian widow faces being stoned to death in days
Campaign hopes to save alleged adulterer from 'cruel and inhuman' death
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38140909/ns ... tn_africa/
Human rights groups, government officials and celebrities are appealing to Iran to halt death-by-stoning plans for a convicted adulterer.
The execution of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, 43, who has already spent five years in prison and received 99 lashes for alleged adultery, would "disgust and appall the watching world", the British Government declared, according to a Thursday report in U.K. newspaper The Times.
New York-based Human Rights Watch said Iran should stop Ashtiani's and all death sentences.
"Death by stoning is always cruel and inhuman, and it is especially abhorrent in cases where judges rely on their own hunches instead of evidence to proclaim a defendant guilty," said Nadya Khalife, Middle East women's rights researcher at Human Rights Watch in a statement on its website. "Iran should immediately put a stop to this execution – and all executions."
Celebrities signing up to campaign for Ashtiani's release include Sir David Hare, the playwright, actress Emma Thompson, actress Juliette Binoche, fashion designer Katherine Hamnett and actor Colin Firth, The Times said.
Even American jail-bound actress Lindsay Lohan got in on the act. On Twitter, she posted a series of messages about the "cruel and inhuman" punishment and linked to a Wednesday Newsweek story about Ashtiani.
The Newsweek story said Ashtiani could be buried up to her breasts and stoned to death as early as this coming weekend.
She is being held in a local jail in the northern Iran town of Tabriz, the U.K.'s Daily Express reported.
In May 2006, a criminal court in East Azerbaijan province found Ashtiani guilty of having had an "illicit relationship" with two men following the death of her husband.
But that September, during the trial of a man accused of murdering her husband, another court reopened an adultery case based on events that allegedly took place before her husband died, the BBC reported.
Despite retracting a confession she said she had been forced to make under duress, Ashtiani was convicted of "adultery while being married" and sentenced to death by stoning.
Ashtiani, a mother of two, denies the charges. She has been in prison since 2006 and has already been given 99 lashes. She has lost appeals for clemency.
Under Iran's strict interpretation of Islamic law, sex before marriage is punishable by a hundred lashes, but married offenders are sentenced to death by stoning, the BBC reported.
'Nightmare'
Ashtiani's son Sajad, 22, and daughter Farideh, 17, told the London-based Guardian newspaper last week that their mother has been unjustly accused and already punished for something she did not do.
"She's innocent, she's been there for five years for doing nothing," Sajad told the Guardian. He described the imminent execution as barbaric. "Imagining her, bound inside a deep hole in the ground, stoned to death, has been a nightmare for me and my sister for all these years."
On Friday, protesters gathered outside the Iranian embassy in London to demand Ashtiani's release, the Guardian said.
Five years ago when Sakineh was flogged, Sajad was 17 and present in the punishment room, he told the Guardian. "They lashed her just in front my eyes, this has been carved in my mind since then."
Sajad and Farideh Ashtiani wrote a letter on June 26 asking the public, "Please help our mother return home!"
Mohammed Mostafaei, an Iranian lawyer who volunteered to represent Ashtiani when her sentence was announced a few months ago, called the planned stoning "an absolutely illegal sentence."
"Two of five judges who investigated Sakineh's case in Tabriz prison concluded that there's no forensic evidence of adultery," Mostafaei told the Guardian. "According to the law, death sentence and especially stoning needs explicit evidences and witnesses while in her case, surprisingly, the judge's knowledge was considered as enough," he said.
European Union Foreign Affairs chief Catherine Ashton told Iran in a letter that she was "deeply concerned" about Ashtiani and other pending executions, the Express reported.
Calling death by stoning "a particularly cruel method of execution which amounts to torture," Ashton said, "I call on Iran to halt these executions."
Amnesty International has contacted the Iranian government directly to appeal for clemency, the Express reported. The organization also offers support for Ashtiani on its website.
Iranian widow faces being stoned to death in days
Campaign hopes to save alleged adulterer from 'cruel and inhuman' death
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38140909/ns ... tn_africa/
Human rights groups, government officials and celebrities are appealing to Iran to halt death-by-stoning plans for a convicted adulterer.
The execution of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, 43, who has already spent five years in prison and received 99 lashes for alleged adultery, would "disgust and appall the watching world", the British Government declared, according to a Thursday report in U.K. newspaper The Times.
New York-based Human Rights Watch said Iran should stop Ashtiani's and all death sentences.
"Death by stoning is always cruel and inhuman, and it is especially abhorrent in cases where judges rely on their own hunches instead of evidence to proclaim a defendant guilty," said Nadya Khalife, Middle East women's rights researcher at Human Rights Watch in a statement on its website. "Iran should immediately put a stop to this execution – and all executions."
Celebrities signing up to campaign for Ashtiani's release include Sir David Hare, the playwright, actress Emma Thompson, actress Juliette Binoche, fashion designer Katherine Hamnett and actor Colin Firth, The Times said.
Even American jail-bound actress Lindsay Lohan got in on the act. On Twitter, she posted a series of messages about the "cruel and inhuman" punishment and linked to a Wednesday Newsweek story about Ashtiani.
The Newsweek story said Ashtiani could be buried up to her breasts and stoned to death as early as this coming weekend.
She is being held in a local jail in the northern Iran town of Tabriz, the U.K.'s Daily Express reported.
In May 2006, a criminal court in East Azerbaijan province found Ashtiani guilty of having had an "illicit relationship" with two men following the death of her husband.
But that September, during the trial of a man accused of murdering her husband, another court reopened an adultery case based on events that allegedly took place before her husband died, the BBC reported.
Despite retracting a confession she said she had been forced to make under duress, Ashtiani was convicted of "adultery while being married" and sentenced to death by stoning.
Ashtiani, a mother of two, denies the charges. She has been in prison since 2006 and has already been given 99 lashes. She has lost appeals for clemency.
Under Iran's strict interpretation of Islamic law, sex before marriage is punishable by a hundred lashes, but married offenders are sentenced to death by stoning, the BBC reported.
'Nightmare'
Ashtiani's son Sajad, 22, and daughter Farideh, 17, told the London-based Guardian newspaper last week that their mother has been unjustly accused and already punished for something she did not do.
"She's innocent, she's been there for five years for doing nothing," Sajad told the Guardian. He described the imminent execution as barbaric. "Imagining her, bound inside a deep hole in the ground, stoned to death, has been a nightmare for me and my sister for all these years."
On Friday, protesters gathered outside the Iranian embassy in London to demand Ashtiani's release, the Guardian said.
Five years ago when Sakineh was flogged, Sajad was 17 and present in the punishment room, he told the Guardian. "They lashed her just in front my eyes, this has been carved in my mind since then."
Sajad and Farideh Ashtiani wrote a letter on June 26 asking the public, "Please help our mother return home!"
Mohammed Mostafaei, an Iranian lawyer who volunteered to represent Ashtiani when her sentence was announced a few months ago, called the planned stoning "an absolutely illegal sentence."
"Two of five judges who investigated Sakineh's case in Tabriz prison concluded that there's no forensic evidence of adultery," Mostafaei told the Guardian. "According to the law, death sentence and especially stoning needs explicit evidences and witnesses while in her case, surprisingly, the judge's knowledge was considered as enough," he said.
European Union Foreign Affairs chief Catherine Ashton told Iran in a letter that she was "deeply concerned" about Ashtiani and other pending executions, the Express reported.
Calling death by stoning "a particularly cruel method of execution which amounts to torture," Ashton said, "I call on Iran to halt these executions."
Amnesty International has contacted the Iranian government directly to appeal for clemency, the Express reported. The organization also offers support for Ashtiani on its website.
"You can tell the greatness of a man by what makes him angry." - Lincoln
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
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Where is stoning legal, and how is it done?
An Iranian woman's possible execution brings age-old punishment to fore
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38146472/ns/world_news
The imminent execution of an Iranian woman by stoning has turned a spotlight on an ancient — and controversial — method of capital punishment that is still used in some parts of the world today.
In the Muslim world, stoning is a relatively rare means of punishing those who commit adultery (zina al-mohsena) under Islamic Law. It is considered a form of community justice and has its fair share of critics both among human rights groups and Islamic clerics.
Those sentenced to stoning, or “lapidation” as it is also called, are buried in a hole and covered with soil (men up to their waists; women to a line above their breasts), according to Article 102 of the Islamic Penal Code. A selected group then executes the alleged adulterers using rocks and sticks. Those able to escape the hole during stoning can be freed, according to Islamic law, a feat that is much more difficult for women than for men because so much more of their body is covered during lapidation.
The law specifies the size of the stones in Sharia Law in Iran to ensure the execution does not take too long or occur too quickly. When Iranian officials have faced substantial public outcry over a stoning sentence, as was the case in the case of Makarrameh Ebrahimi in 2007, they have freed accused adulterers, according to the Human Rights Watch.
In order to be convicted of adultery, judges can rely upon eyewitness accounts and evidence, or, under Article 105 of the Islamic Penal Code, their “judicial knowledge." Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, 43, whose execution by stoning is expected any day now, was convicted on judicial knowledge.
The use of stoning as a method of execution finds its roots in ancient Greece and in Judeo-Christian religious texts, and has been used to punish those accused of adultery, prostitution, murder, and blasphemy. It is referenced in the Torah and Old Testament, but has no explicit mention in the Quran.
It still exists on the law books in Afghanistan, Iran, sections of Nigeria, Pakistan, Sudan, and the United Arab Emirates.
In addition to myriad human rights organizations such as Human Rights Watch, a number of Islamic authorities have denounced stoning, including Ayatollah Shahroudi, the head of Iran’s judiciary, who in 2002 said stoning should no longer exist in Iranian law.
Despite Shahroudi’s stance, stoning continues to remain on the law books in Iran and lower judges are free to sentence adulterers to that method of punishment.
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
Can you imagine the mindset of one of the people who participate in the stoning?
Frankly, I doubt it's much different than the mindset of some of the people around here. If you believe tortuous murder is okay with reason, all you need next is a reason.
But yes, the human race at a very low point - not just for the stoning.
hey Redrock, I totally agree with you. I find it even more sickening how we try to trick some of the executioners here in the US -- to make them feel better. That last execution by firing squad (i think) had like 5 guys with guns. I think one (1) of them was armed with a blank so that they don't really know whether or not they were the one that killed him... I guess they'll sleep better at night.
maybe the people on the execution squad in the stoning case should use styrofoam rocks or tennis balls so they can have plausible deniability as well?
it is quite sad, in any situation we as humans are capable of such wonderful things and at the same time such unspeakable things....
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
I hadn't heard that. How strange. Seems to me like if you believe in what you're doing you shouldn't try to trick yourself into thinking maybe you didn't do it.
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Amen, we US citizens should be concerned with the crimes being committed against us. This is sad but a waste of time to be dwelling on.
it is most likely we will be forced to give "freedom" and "democracy" to them as well..
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
And if there is... is the penalty for being against their Death Penalty... a Death Penalty?
Hail, Hail!!!
haha Cosmo
Sad, but a good question. Makes you wonder where they would draw the line.
And until the people of the US overturn their government, people will continue being executed by being shot at, hanged, gassed, electrocuted or injected with lethal drugs? All of these methods are slow and painful (except probably being shot - may be quicker but no less painful). I repeat, the method may differ, but the thought behind it and the end result is the same. Stoning may seem horrendously barbaric to us but it is no less barbaric than electrocution. 'We' are shocked by this method of execution but are OK with the others I have stated (which are still current methods of execution in the US)? It's not an 'Iranian government' thing in particular. This 'shock' should be aimed at ALL countries where there is state sanctioned murder - whatever method is used.
That's what I wonder... isn't a Death Sentence a Death Sentence?
Besides, Stoning is sanctioned in th Holy Bible. What's wrong with that, right?
Hail, Hail!!!
I agree... I'm just waiting for the, 'Just put a rock to the side of her head and be done with it', arguement to pop up.
That, or the 'Well she might be innocent this time... but, I'm sure she's gotten away with some other crime in the past' arguement. Because, you know what they say... 'An Adulterer is an Adulterer'.
Hail, Hail!!!
just a thought of course.
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/petition/673/851/820
thanks for posting that. i was looking for something like that but you beat me to it.
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
+1
Some people find it difficult to step outside the cozy little bubble of fear and prejudice they've created for themselves, and to look at the world with some wider perspective. No doubt the thought of someone being murdered by the state in an Arab country is abhorrent and offensive to them, but at the same time they cheer the same thing happening to people in their own country.
Some people just need to open their eyes and grow up/evolve.
I think that generally when people here talk about the death penalty and are for it, they see the 'sanitized' methods of execution in the US. Methods such as this one which are so 'public' and violent/graphic (for lack of better words) really brings home that it is murder. I would have thought that those pro death penalty would still be outraged by the potential fate of this lady but may see this as a practice from a 'backward Arab terrorist' country and not make the correlation between this execution with the ones in the US. Maybe a bit like when one buys a nicely packaged steak in a supermarket, not wanting to link it to a live animal and graphic images of its slaughter. Keep it sanitized.
TA - thanks for the link.
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
I'll sign that petition when I get home. Thanks for the link
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/ju ... th-stoning
She may be spared stoning but, unfortunately, there are still a number of women in jail whose fate is similar.
Sad but true.
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."