Having regard to the resolutions adopted by the UN General Assembly concerning a moratorium on executions pending the abolition of the death penalty;
Having regard to the report of the UN Secretary-General of 23 September 2009 on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran and the statement on Iran issued by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on 4 March 2010;
Noting that Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani has been imprisoned since 2005 when she was tried pleading guilty under torture to the crime of having had two extramarital sexual relationships after the death of her husband;
Regretting Ashtiani was then sentenced to a punishment consisting on 99 lashes which was administered by the authorities;
Deploring that a few months later her case was brought up again when a separate court was prosecuting one of the two men involved in the death of Ashtiani’s husband. She was illegally retried for the same alleged crime of adultery, convicted of adultery while still married, and sentenced to death by stoning under the Islamic Sharia law.
The Executive Committee of Liberal International
1/ Strongly condemns the sentencing to death by stoning of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, and takes the view that, regardless of the facts, a sentence of death penalty can never be justified or accepted.
2/ Urges the Iranian authorities to release Ashtiani immediately.
3/ Reiterates its opposition to the death penalty and calls on the Iranian authorities, in accordance with UN GA Resolutions 62/149 and 63/138, to institute a moratorium on executions pending the abolition of the death penalty.
