Iran sentences 51 people to death by STONING for adultery as victims will be buried in sand & pummeled with rocks
SHOCKING classified records reveal Iran has sentenced 51 people to death by stoning for adultery with the victims set to have rocks hurled at their heads while trapped in sand.
A leaked trove of documents smuggled from inside the country's notorious prisons lay bare the barbaric reality of Iran's justice system as 23 women and 28 men as young as 25 await their brutal executions.
The records, obtained by The Sun Online from sources of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), include the names, ages, sentencing body, and location of imprisonment of the accused.
It is the first time an official list of individuals sentenced to stoning by the Iranian Judiciary has been acquired from within the regime.
Iran has one of the most horrific human rights records in the world, and according to campaigners also holds the harrowing title for the highest execution rate.
Death by stoning came into force in Iran after the 1979 revolution, and despite the judiciary placing a moratorium on the vile practice in 2002, many are still condemned to the wicked punishment.
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Under cruel Iranian laws, rape, adultery, armed robbery, and murder are among crimes that can lead to the death penalty - which law enforcers in the country have long argued is essential for maintaining public security.
Iran's Penal Code even has specific instructions for how the savage execution should be carried out, stating: "The size of the stone used in stoning shall not be too large to kill the convict by one or two throws and at the same time shall not be too small to be called a stone."
Victims first have their hands bound before being covered in a sheet, which is tied in several places including around the neck, waist, and ankles.
They are then buried in a ditch filled with sand - with women having just their shoulders and head left above the ground, while men are exposed from the waist up.
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The horror stoning then begins, with rocks relentlessly pummeled at the victim, sometimes for hours of horrific suffering, until they die - bloodied and in pain.
A doctor recruited to oversee the execution will pause the stoning periodically to check whether the victim is dead.
If not, the brutal battering continues.
Newly-obtained documents seen by The Sun reveal 51 men and women aged between 25 and 59 sentenced to death were being held in prisons in September 2020 - when Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi was still Chief Justice.
In the past, hardline cleric Raisi - known by some as The Butcher - has allegedly ordered the torture of pregnant women, had prisoners thrown off cliffs, and had people flogged with electric cords.
He earned his sick nickname over his alleged involvement in the mass execution of some 30,000 political prisoners in 1988.
The documents show Raisi condemned 51 men and women to death, all convicted of adultery and some also of other crimes including kidnap, possession of drugs, and even production of porn.
Almost two years on, they continue to be holed up in Iran's hell-hole prisons - fearing they could be summoned for stoning at any moment.
'CONSTANT FEAR'
Hossein Abedini, deputy director of the NCRI’s UK representative office, told The Sun Online: "The Iranian regime's brutal practice of stoning is enshrined in the mullahs’ medieval penal code, which also permits amputation of limbs and eye-gouging.
"Stoning is an anti-Islamic and anti-human practice.
"The mullahs' regime is rotten to the core. Such acts of suppression are a vain attempt to contain a disgruntled society that's on the verge of explosion."
Mr Abedini added: "It is impossible to imagine the agonising experience of someone who's awaiting stoning.
"The victims live with the constant fear of the moment when the prison guards will open their cell door and call them out to have their sentence served.
"Some of the people mentioned on the list we got out of the mullahs’ Prisons Organisation have been waiting for their sentence’s implementation for years, so you can imagine their agony."
Shocking photos sent to The Sun by People's Mujahedin of Iran (PMOI) - an organisation that is member of the NCRI - from inside Iran's prisons reveal the inhumane conditions inmates are forced to live in as chronic overcrowding wreaks havoc in cells.
Pictures show men sleeping side by side like sardines in a tin with barely enough room to move.
Hackers previously leaked horrific videos of inmates being beaten inside Iran's notorious Evin prison where prisoners are raped and executed.
Torture is believed to be rife in Iran's prisons, with electric shocks, floggings, waterboarding, and sexual violence used on prisoners, according to human rights groups.
Prisoners have before told of being subjected to cruel torture in jail as cops allegedly hold guns to their heads and kick them to the point they throw up blood.
It comes as Amnesty revealed Iran was the driving force behind increases in global executions and the number of death sentences handed down last year - at 20 per cent and 40 per cent respectively.
In the organisation's annual Death Sentences and Executions, it highlighted that at least 595 were executed last year, while at least 2,052 death sentences were passed around the world.
The report read: "The increase in executions was primarily driven by rises in the yearly figure for Iran (from at least 246 in 2020 to at least 314 in 2021, a 28 per cent increase), which was the highest figure on record since 2017.
"The spike in Iran appeared particularly for executions of people convicted of drug-related offences (132), which represented 42 per cent of the total and constituted a more than five-fold rise from 2020."
Human rights organisations have repeatedly condemned the death penalty practice, while also calling for a halt to other barbaric punishments wielded in Iran.
Its "eye for an eye" laws - known as Qisas - sees prisoners subject to brutal punishments designed to inflict as much pain as possible in retaliation, including having eyes gouged out, hands chopped off and even the mass, public hangings.
Disturbingly, the victim's families are often encouraged to take part in executions themselves under the law.
Mr Abedini said the PMOI wants the regime's human rights record to be referred to the United Nations Security Council.
He added: "The United Kingdom government and its democratic partners have a duty to speak out against a regime that continues to execute dissidents and hand down such barbaric punishments two decades into the 21st Century.
"If resistance against foreign aggression justly deserves to be supported, then a clear firm stance in the face of such atrocities by the regime in Iran against their own people seems imperative.
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"The dossier on the horrific and systematic human rights violations in Iran, especially the regime’s conduct in prisons, deserves to be referred to the United Nations Security Council.
"The regime’s leaders, in particular Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and President Ebrahim Raisi, must face the International Criminal Court (ICC) for four decades of crimes against humanity."
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