Stoning in Iran. Logo of ncr-iran.org

Frankfurt/M. / Teheran - 14 December 2004. The 35-year old Hajiyeh Esmaelvand is to be executed by stoning in Iran. The International Society for Human Rights (ISHR) reports that in the beginning of February 2003, the then Iranian Minister of Justice Ayatollah Hashemi-Shahrudi had promised the then EU Commissioner for Foreign Affairs, Chris Patten, to abolish stoning as a form of punishment. In a similar case, Shahnaz, another 35-year old Iranian woman, was sentenced to death by stoning on 4 August 2003 for "adultery", in accordance with Art. 83 of the Iranian Penal Code. International protests were only able to prevent that the moratorium on stoning was broken. However, the woman's life could not be saved: Shahnaz was decapitated instead.

It has only become public now that the Highest Court of the Islamic Republic in Teheran sentenced the 35-years old Hajiyeh Esmaelvand to death by stoning in an appeal trial last month. In doing so, the court overruled the first court which sentenced her to death by hanging.

The Iranian authorities refused to release the details concerning the prosecution and justifications for the harsh verdict. Since in Iran death sentences are usually executed within a month after the announcement of the verdict, ISHR fears that the stoning is soon to happen. ISHR Germany appeals to the government of Germany, the European Parliament and EU partners to speak up for the life of Hajiyeh Esmaelvand.

Hajiyeh Esmaelvand has already been in prison in Yelfa in the Northern Iranian province of Azerbaijan for five years.