Sakina Mohamadie Astiani, being convicted of adultery (and somehow, although not directly, in the murder of her husband), has received 99 lashes and been sentenced to death by stoning by the high court in Iran.
The person who appears in the video is Omir Khadir, a spokesperson for NCRI ..National Council of Resistance of Iran. The video and demonstration against the execution and stoning of Sakina Astiani as well of what the NCRI sees as human right's violations of many other Iranians, were made at Place Trocadero, Paris, on Saturday, August 28, 2010.
On Tuesday, August 31, I met with the person in charge of Iranian matters at the Paris office of Amnesty International and was provided with the following information:
"As Iran is a state party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), the government is legally bound to observe the provisions of this treaty and to ensure that they are fully reflected in the country's laws and practices relating to human rights. Death by stoning violatezs Article 6 (right to life) and 7 (prohibition of torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment) of the ICCPR."
"Women suffer a disproportionate impact of the punishment of death by stoning in Iran. One reason is that they are not treated equally before the laws and courts, in clear violation of international fair trial standards. Within Iran's judicial system, the weight attached to the evidence of a man is equivilent to that of two women, and in cases dealing with some offences, including adultery, testimony by a woman alone or given jointly with one man cannot be accepted as evidence."
"Finally, the very procedure specified for carrying out executions discriminates against women. Artricle 102 of the Penal Code states that, during stoning, the man shall be buried in a ditch up to near his waist and the woman up to near her chest. Article 103 states that if the condemned person manages to escape from the pit, they will not be stoned again if they had been sentenced after confession, but clearly it would be harder for a woman to escape than a man, since she would have been buried more deeply."
After international protests against the sentence of death by stoning of Sakineh Astiani, the court of Iran is reevaluating the punishment.