An Iranian criminal court has sentenced a woman to death by stoning over alleged complicity in the murder of her husband, according to reports.
The gruesome penalty, in which the wrongdoer is buried up to her shoulders and pelted with rocks, was meted out ironically on the occasion of International Human Rights Day on Thursday. It was first reported on the Persian-language Iranian website LAHIG.
The woman identified only by her initials as "A .Kh" had reportedly received an initial penalty of lashings and a 25-year prison sentence.
"The stoning sentence is an indication of the Iranian regime's continued war against women in Iran. Arbitrary executions in Iran must be on top of the agenda in any dialogue between Iran and the West,'' Maryam Nayeb Yazdi, a prominent Canadian-Iranian human rights activist based in Toronto, told Fox News.
"We need to note that an official Iranian website released the stoning sentence news, and we should question the regime's motives for doing so," he added.
Yazdi, who also runs the translation blog Persian2English and works with the international NGO Iran Human Rights, noted that the rate of executions in Iran has not been declining despite widespread campaign to halt it.
Citing the International Committees Against Execution and Stoning, he said Iran is believed to have imposed death by stoning on at least 150 people since the Islamic Revolution in 1980.
Julie Lenarz, executive director of the U.K.-based Human Security Center, meanwhile, lamented the West's move to strike a deal with the rogue nation, stressing that the country has no regard for human life.
"Whether or not one supports the nuclear deal with Iran, it is astonishing that the West cultivates an ever-closer alliance with a theocratic regime widely known for its abysmal human rights record and aggressive behavior in the region. They hang men for the 'crime' of writing poems; or engaging in peaceful protest; or loving someone of the same sex,'' she said.
"Women are stoned for being raped and Iranian law even allows for juvenile executions. Iran is averaging three hangings per day at the moment and remains a pariah state with no regard for human life," she added.
The UN's Human Rights Day is observed every year on Dec. 10 and commemorates the day in 1948 when the U.N. General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
