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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Iran Confirms Death Verdict Against Woman |
| 2004-12-23 |
| Iran confirmed Wednesday that a court has sentenced a young woman to death for prostitution but denied reports by rights watchdog Amnesty International that she was mentally disabled. Leyla Mafi, 21, was sentenced to death more than a year ago by a court in Arak, central Iran, for having illegal sex, judiciary official Mohammad Hossein Pourianmehr said. The verdict is now being reviewed by the Supreme Court, as is customary in Iran in capital cases, Hanging is the usual form of execution in Iran. Mafi's case had been little noted here but was brought to international attention last week by London-based Amnesty International. The group said the woman, whom it identified only as Leyla M., was 19 with the mental capacity of an 8-year-old. Pourianmehr, the judiciary official, said Mafi was in full mental and physical health and had confessed. Pourianmehr said Mafi was 19 when she was arrested, which may account for the age given by Amnesty, which had relied on a report on the case in a small Iranian newspaper. Mafi started working as a prostitute when she was 14, Pourianmehr said, and has two children now being cared for at a state orphanage. Amnesty had said the woman's mother forced her into prostitution when she was eight. It said the girl was raped repeatedly and gave birth to a baby when she was nine. Amnesty said that as a party to the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights, Iran had promised not to execute anyone for crimes committed while they were under 18. Pourianmehr said Mafi was working as a prostitute as an adult. Last summer a 16-year old girl who was reported to be suffering from a psychological disorder was executed in the northern town of Neka on charges of having an illegal sexual relationship. Under Iranian law, girls over the age of 9 and boys over 15 face execution if they commit crimes punishable by death, such as murder and rape. Under certain conditions, capital punishment is also imposed for those engaging in an illegal sexual relationship. Iranian lawyer Shirin Ebadi, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003 for her efforts to protect the rights of children and improve human rights in Iran, last month tried to hold a rally to protest the executions of those under 18. Ebadi said she was told by the Interior Ministry that there was no need to hold a protest because the judiciary was drafting a bill to limit death verdicts against those under 18. Ebadi said the judiciary promised two years ago that it would present its bill to parliament but it has not done so yet. On Tuesday, Iran rejected a U.N. resolution criticizing its human rights record. |
| Posted by:tipper |
| #2 Nothing gives these islamic judges and mullahs a woody like the propect of personally putting the noose around the neck of a teenage "harlot". At 19, she doesn't excite as much, though the mental age of 8 does compensate some. It's the prospect of interrogating and executing a 13 year old that gives islam's finest a really fat chubby. |
| Posted by: ed 2004-12-23 11:10:45 AM |
| #1 The scribes and pharisees brought to Jesus a woman caught in adultery. And when they had set her in their midst they said to Him, "Teacher, this woman was caught in adultery, in the very act. Now Moses, in the law, commanced that such should be stoned. But what do you say?" ....Jesus stooped down and wrote on the ground with his finger, as though He did not hear...He raised himself up and said to them, "He who is without sin among you, let him cast the first stone at her. And again he stooped and wrote on the ground. John 8:3-8 I wonder what he was writing on the ground. Perhaps, "Where's the man?" How can these judges prove a case of adultery without the men being involved? Oh, wait--these are mullahs. Logic doesn't matter. |
| Posted by: mom 2004-12-23 11:02:34 AM |