Iranian Woman to be Stoned on “Suspicion” of Adultery……….
“A 43-year-old Iranian woman is facing death by stoning unless an international campaign launched by her children forces the authorities to quash what her lawyer calls a bogus conviction. In a case that highlights the growing use of the death penalty in a country that has already executed more than 100 people this year, Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani was convicted in May 2006 of conducting an "illicit relationship outside marriage." Sakineh already endured a sentence of 99 lashes, but her case was re-opened when a court in Tabriz suspected her of murdering her husband. She was acquitted, but the adultery charge was reviewed and a death penalty handed down on the basis of "judge's knowledge" – a loophole that allows for subjective judicial rulings where no conclusive evidence is present………”
The Head of the Judiciary of Iran mandated in 2002 that stoning would no longer be practiced in Iran; but the law is still in the penal code because it was never officially removed. This is playing with the Islamic Shari’a laws. Islamic Shari’a requires four actual witnesses to the “act of adultery” if the witnesses are men. Or eight witnesses to the actual “act of adultery” if the witnesses are female. Or any combination thereof. There is no way any adulteress or adulterer will do the “act of adultery” in front of four men or eight women or any combination thereof; not even at a fraternity party, not even at a Republican fund-raiser.
This stoning business comes from the Old Testament (Jewish Law), but the people of the Old Testament have not used it in probably over a thousand years. Only a handful of countries like Iran, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Nigeria, Somalia, and Sudan still apply it. Most Arab countries, including most Gulf states, do not apply this form of cruel punishment. In some countries like Jordan such cases never reach the courts because the women suspects are usually murdered by their relatives as “honor killings”: these are about the only kind of “honor” these people know, the kind that is nestled between the legs of a woman.
Cheers
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