Zhila Izadi: 55 lashings

Frankfurt/M. - 28 October 2004. Together with her brother Bakhtiar, 14-year old Zhila Izadi, who was sentenced to death by stoning for having an incestuous relationship with her 13-year old brother by a sharia court in the city of Marivan in Iran in the beginning of October 2004, has been transferred to a prison in Sananday. According to a local committee for children's rights, representatives of which visited Zhila and Bakhtiar in prison, Zhila has meanwhile been punished with 55 lashings. It is not known, whether the boy has received any punishment yet.

According to information of the International Society for Human Rights (ISHR), the verdict against the 14-year old Zhila Izadi is not undisputed in Iran. Many Iranians do not agree with the harsh verdict against the 14-year old. Although Islamic jurisprudence considers incest as one of the offences that are punishable with the death penalty, many Iranians believe that the protection of the child is a morally higher good than the obligation to execute the punishment of stoning.

Official authorities have already announced that the stoning will not be carried out, but that the girl will have to expect a harsh punishment. So far, the committee for children's rights in Sananday has only been allowed one visit; a second visit, during which clothes were to be brought to the children, was denied. The committee describes the detained children as nervous and scared; in particular the 13-year old boy was described as being still very infantile.

In a letter to the Iranian government, ISHR demands a well-founded and justified repeal of the verdict, because otherwise there is the fear that the girl might be extra-judicially stoned as soon as she comes out of the prison.