Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani to Be Lashed Over Newspaper Photograph
THE GUARDIAN: Iranian woman facing death for adultery to be whipped despite Times apologising for using picture of another person

Activists hold a solidarity rally for Sakineh Mohamadi Ashtiani who was convicted of committing adultery and sentenced to being stoned to death. Photograph: The Guardian
Iran has reportedly sentenced Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani – the 43-year-old Iranian woman who faces execution after being convicted of adultery – to 99 lashes in prison for "spreading corruption and indecency" after allowing an unveiled picture of herself to be published in a British newspaper.

The claim, which could not be confirmed, comes from her family and a lawyer representing Mohammadi Ashtiani, based on reports from those who have recently left the prison in Tabriz where she has been held for the last four years.

The latest charges against Mohammadi Ashtiani – if confirmed – would appear to suggest that the Iranian authorities have been stung by the international outcry her case has attracted through the campaign of her family and supporters in the media, and could be read as a warning that it is Sakineh who could suffer from the protests.

What has made the latest charges against her even more extraordinary is the fact that the unveiled photograph in question, published by the Times newspaper on 28 August, was not actually of Sakineh but of another woman, for which the paper has since apologised.

In reality, the woman pictured was Susan Hejrat, an Iranian political activist living in Sweden whose photograph had been published on a website along with an article she had written about Sakineh's case, perhaps causing the confusion. In its apology, published on Friday, the Times said that the photograph had been obtained from Mohammad Mostafaei, one of Sakineh's lawyers, who had claimed that he received the picture from her son, Sajad – which he has denied.

Instead, in an open letter today, Sajad Ghaderzadeh accused the Iranian authorities of using the mistaken picture as "an excuse to increase their harassment of our mother".

He added: "My mother has been called in to see the judge in charge of prison misdemeanours, and he has sentenced our helpless mother to 99 lashes on false charges of spreading corruption and indecency by disseminating this picture of a woman presumed to be her [Sakineh] without hijab." >>> Saeed Kamali Dehghan and Peter Beaumont | Saturday, September 04, 2010

leJDD.fr: Nouveau châtiment pour Sakineh : Toujours menacée d’exécution, la mère de famille iranienne a été condamnée à 99 coups de fouet. >>>Karen Lajon - Le Journal du Dimanche | Dimanche 05 Septembre 2010

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad May End Up as Genghis Khan with a Nuclear Bomb
THE TELEGRAPH: Iran will not be shamed into abandoning stoning, or its nuclear ambitions, says Alasdair Palmer.

Joseph Stalin was once described as "Genghis Khan with a telephone". President Ahmadinejad may soon be Genghis Khan with a nuclear bomb. Admittedly, Ahmadinejad hasn't yet committed mass murder on that scale, although when he promised to "wipe Israel off the map", he showed that he would – if only he could. And he may treat his own people slightly better than Genghis Khan treated his. But as Dr Johnson said, "there is no settling orders of precedence between a louse and a flea".

Ahmadinejad has imprisoned thousands for protesting against the brutality, incompetence and illegitimacy of his rule; he has condoned the imposition of the death penalty for any Muslim who converts to another faith; and he supports punishing adultery by stoning those involved to death.

There has been a global campaign to persuade Iran to end stoning, a disgustingly barbaric punishment which inflicts pain of the same order as impaling, Genghis Khan's favourite method of execution, and may take even longer to cause death. It centres on the case of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, a 44-year-old mother and widow who was convicted of adultery in 2006 and punished with 99 lashes. She has been in prison ever since, as the judges decided that 99 lashes wasn't a severe enough sentence for the crime of loving someone who isn't your spouse: she deserved to be stoned to death. Continue reading and comment >>> Alasdair Palmer | Saturday, September 04, 2010

Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani Subjected to Mock Execution
THE GUARDIAN: Her son Sajad says she was told she would be hanged at dawn on Sunday and visits by her family and lawyer have been denied

Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, the Iranian woman sentenced to death by stoning, was told on Saturday that she was to be hanged at dawn on Sunday, but the sentence was not carried out, it emerged tonight.

Mohammadi Ashtiani wrote her will and embraced her cellmates in Tabriz prison just before the call to morning prayer, when she expected to be led to the gallows, her son Sajad told the Guardian.

"Pressure from the international community has so far stopped them from carrying out the sentence but they're killing her every day by any means possible," he said.

The mock execution came days after prison authorities denied family and legal visits to Mohammadi Ashtiani. Her children were told she was unwilling to meet them while she was told, also falsely, that no one had come to visit her. >>> Saeed Kamali Dehghan and Ian Black | Tuesday, August 31, 2010

How Do We Convince Iran That Stoning Is Barbaric?
THE GLOBE AND MAIL: Tehran’s legal codes are studded with inconsistencies and vagaries that make due process virtually impossible

The harrowing case of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani – a mother of two sentenced to stoning by an Iranian court for adultery – has rightfully drawn the world’s attention to Iran’s draconian penal code, which reserves its cruellest punishments for women. The practice of stoning in particular is so abhorrent that even political allies such as Brazil have been roused to action. President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has offered Ms. Ashtiani asylum, but a foreign leader can have no direct bearing on a domestic legal proceeding. The Brazilian intervention, however, sends a powerful message to the Islamic Republic: Its human-rights record can never be divorced from its nuclear diplomacy.

Before the 1979 Islamic revolution, back in the years when I worked as a judge in Iran, consensual sexual relations between adults did not figure in the country’s criminal code. The revolution enacted a version of Islamic law extraordinarily harsh even by the standards of the Islamic world, making extramarital sex a crime. The punishment for a single man or woman guilty of sex outside marriage became 100 lashes; under Article 86, the punishment for a married person became death by stoning.

On the face of things, stoning is not a gendered punishment, for the law stipulates that adulterous men face the same brutal end. But because Iranian law permits polygamy, it effectively offers men an escape route: They are able to claim that their adulterous relationship was, in fact, a temporary marriage (Iranian law recognizes “marriages” of even a few hours duration between men and single women). Men typically exploit this escape clause, and are rarely sentenced to stoning. But married women accused of adultery have no access to such reprieve.

The barbarity of stoning aside, Iran’s legal codes are studded with inconsistencies and vagaries that make due process virtually impossible. The penal code notes that, if a man or woman is denied sexual access to a spouse due to travel or other prolonged separation, 100 lashes suffice as punishment for adultery, but it does not specify the duration of acceptable separation. Stoning can also be reduced to lashes when a married woman has sex with a minor (Iranian law considers the age of maturation for girls 9, and for boys 15). Read on and comment >>> Shirin Ebadi | Thursday, August 05, 2010

Shirin Ebadi is an Iranian human-rights activist and Nobel laureate.

Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, who became President Nicolas Sarkozy’s third wife two years ago, has signed a petition calling for Sakineh’s release. Photograph: Mail On Sunday
Carla Bruni Branded 'Prostitute' by Iran after She Campaigns for Woman Threatened with Stoning
MAIL ON SUNDAY: Carla Bruni-Sarkozy has been branded a ‘prostitute’ by Iran after she publicly attacked the country for threatening to stone a woman to death.

France’s First Lady is part of a campaign to save the life of Sakineh Mohammadi-Ashtiani, a 43-year-old mother of two.

She is accused of cheating on her husband and then helping to kill him, and is now facing capital punishment for her crimes.

Ms Bruni-Sarkozy, who became President Nicolas Sarkozy’s third wife two years ago, has signed a petition calling for Sakineh’s release.

Last week the former supermodel said: ‘I just can’t see what good could
come out of this macabre ceremony, whatever the judicial reasons put
forward to justify it.’

Addressing Sakineh directly in an open letter, Ms Bruni-Sarkozy wrote: ‘Why shed your blood and deprive your children of their mother? Because you have lived, because you have loved, because you’re a woman, and because you’re an Iranian? Everything within me refuses to accept this.’

But Kayhan (which means ‘Universe’ in English), the Iranian daily newspaper which acts as a mouthpiece for the country’s ultra conservative Islamic regime, has now accused 42-year-old Ms Bruni-Sarkozy of being a hypocrite. >>> Peter Allen | Sunday, August 29, 2010

THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: Iran calls Carla Bruni a 'prostitute’: Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, the French First Lady, has been called a “prostitute” by Iran after she criticised the country’s decision to stone a woman to death. >>> | Sunday, August 29, 2010

Related articles here

Lapidation en Iran : Une centaine de villes se mobilisent
A Paris, 300 personnes se sont rassemblées sur le parvis des droits de l'Homme au Trocadéro. Photo : 20 Minutes (Suisse)
20 MINUTES: Plusieurs manifestations de soutien se sont tenues samedi dans toute la France pour Sakineh Mohammadi-Ashtiani, l'Iranienne condamnée à mort par lapidation pour adultère et meurtre.

Plusieurs manifestations de soutien à Sakineh Mohammadi-Ashtiani, l'Iranienne condamnée à mort par lapidation pour adultère et meurtre et dont le sort suscite une vague d'émotion en Occident, se sont tenues samedi dans toute la France.

A Paris, 300 personnes se sont rassemblées sur le parvis des droits de l'Homme au Trocadéro, aux côtés de plusieurs personnalités comme l'écrivain Marek Halter ou la réalisatrice et élue parisienne Yamina Benguigui, a constaté l'AFP.

"Sakineh est au courant de cette mobilisation. Ce qui est important, c'est que nos voix puissent résonner, car nos renoncements en France peuvent être catastrophiques pour elle", a lancé Sihem Habchi, présidente de l'association Ni Putes Ni Soumises (NPNS), co-organisatrice du rassemblement avec la Ligue du droit international des femmes et le Mouvement pour la paix et contre le terrorisme.

Mme Benguigui, adjointe au maire de Paris chargée des droits de l'Homme, s'est directement adressée à cette Iranienne de 43 ans, "pour vous affirmer avec amour, détermination et sans réserve que nous ne vous abandonnerons jamais". >>> afp | Samedi 28 Août 2010

Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani's Family Turned Away From Prison Visit
THE GUARDIAN: Iranian woman sentenced to death by stoning was told by guards she had been abandoned by her children, says son

Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, right, pictured in 2004 at a nursery in Osko, Iran, where she worked for almost two years. Photograph: Family handout for the Guardian
The Iranian woman sentenced to death by stoning has been denied visits by her lawyer and family, her son told the Guardian today, as it emerged that her lawyer has been subjected to fresh harassment.

Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani has been detained in Tabriz jail since 2006 and was sentenced to death on charges of adultery. She was acquitted of murdering her husband, but Iranian authorities have since accused her of being an accomplice.

Arriving for a prison visit yesterday, her son Sajad, 22 and daughter Saeedeh, 17, were told she was unwilling to see them.

Later, when she was allowed to phone her son, it emerged she had been told by guards that no one had come to visit and that her children had abandoned her, Sajad told the Guardian. "[The officials] have become obstinate – they are seeking just different ways to mistreat my mother and us as her children," he said.

Mohammadi Ashtiani's government-appointed lawyer, Houtan Kian, has been unable to visit her since she appeared on TV this month and confessed to involvement in her husband's murder. Human rights campaigners say the confession was made under duress. >>> Saeed Kamali Dehghan | Friday, August 27, 2010

Why Have Western Feminists Been So Muted in Their Criticisms of Iran?
THE TELEGRAPH – BLOGS – TOBY YOUNG: The fate of the 43-year-old Iranian woman sentenced to death by stoning took a sinister turn yesterday when she appeared on Iranian state television to confess to her “crimes”. Her lawyer fears she will now be executed imminently, probably hung by the neck until she is dead.

Many human rights groups have criticised the Iranian authorities for their brutal treatment of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, including Amnesty International and the International Committee Against Stoning. The mother of two has already received 99 lashes for committing adultery and according to her lawyer, who has fled the country after a warrant was issued for his arrest, she has been beaten and tortured in jail. Yet the response of feminists in the West has been strangely muted.

Hillary Clinton lost no opportunity to brandish her feminist credentials during her campaign to become the Democratic Party’s Presidential nominee in 2008 and even went so far as to blame her failure to beat Barack Obama on the “glass ceiling”. Unfortunately, the concrete ceiling of Ashtiani’s jail cell hasn’t inspired any comparable rhetoric. All she has said is that she’s “troubled” by Ashtiani’s case.

At least Hillary Clinton was able to bring herself to mutter this mild rebuke. No other prominent feminist has spoken out about Ashtiani’s case, unless you include Yoko Ono who has signed the petition calling for her to be freed. We’ve heard nothing from Germaine Greer, nothing from Gloria Steinem, nothing from Jane Fonda, nothing from Naomi Wolf, nothing from Clare Short, nothing from Harriet Harmen.

We know why, of course. Almost no one on the left, with the honourable exception of Christopher Hitchens, dares to breath a word against any Islamic country for fear of being branded “Islamophobic”. Thus, a brutal dictatorship is able to torture and murder thousands of innocent women, safe in the knowledge that the self-styled keepers of the West’s conscience will remain silent. Continue reading and comment >>> Toby Young | Friday, August 13, 2010

Related >>>

Condamnée à mort par lapidation, elle avoue tout à la télévision
TRIBUNE DE GENÈVE: IRAN | Une Iranienne, dont la condamnation à mort par lapidation pour adultère a suscité l'indignation mondiale, a reconnu avoir été complice de l'assassinat de son mari.

Elle a admis avoir commis un adultère.

Dans une interview diffusée mercredi soir lors d'une émission politique dénonçant la "propagande des médias occidentaux", une femme présentée comme Sakineh Mohammadi-Ashtiani reconnaît qu'un homme avec lequel elle était en relation lui avait proposé de tuer son mari, et qu'elle a laissé cet homme commettre le meurtre lors duquel elle était présente.

Cette femme, qui parle en azéri (turc) et dont les propos sont traduits en persan, est enveloppée d'un tchador noir qui ne laisse apparaître que son nez et un oeil. Le responsable de la justice de la province d'Azerbaidjan oriental où l'affaire s'est déroulée en 2006, affirme lors de l'émission que Mme Mohammadi-Ashtiani a également endormi son mari en lui faisant une piqûre avant que le meurtrier ne l'électrocute. >>> ATS | Jeudi 12 Août 2010

Liens en relation avec l’article >>>

THE GUARDIAN: Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani 'confesses' to murder on Iran state TV: Lawyer says Ashtiani was tortured before interview recorded in Tabiz prison, and fears execution imminent >>> Saeed Kamali Dehghan | Thursday, August 12, 2010

Iranian Woman Sentenced to Be Stoned: Actress Shohreh Aghdashloo speaks out against the court-ordered stoning of a woman in Iran.


Condemned Iranian Woman Denounces Lawyer


Protesters Rally for Iranian Women

Iran Snubs Brazilian Asylum Offer for Stoning Woman
THE GUARDIAN: Official says 'humane and emotional' Brazilian president may not have all facts in Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani case

Iran signalled today that it was likely to reject the Brazilian president's offer to give refuge to an Iranian woman convicted of adultery and sentenced to death by stoning.

The case of 43-year-old Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani triggered an international outcry that prompted Iran to at least temporarily withdraw the stoning sentence. Ashtiani, who has two children, could still be hanged.

Ramin Mehmanparast, a foreign ministry spokesman, said: "A far as we know, [the Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula] Da Silva is a very humane and emotional person who probably has not received enough information about the case."

Further information would be provided to the president to clarify the situation about "an individual who is a convicted offender", he added. Iran says Ashtiani has also been convicted of murder. >>> Associated Press | Tuesday, August 03, 2010

Iran Stoning Woman Offered Asylum by Brazil's President Lula
THE GUARDIAN: Offer raises hopes Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, the Iranian woman sentenced to death by stoning for adultery, will be spared

Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has stepped into the international outcry over Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, the Iranian woman sentenced to death by stoning for adultery, by offering his country as a refuge, a move which raised hopes her life will be spared.

The surprise offer prompted an immediate reaction from Iran, which considers Brazil a key ally. Iranian officials softened their tone with Ashtiani's family over the weekend and official media reported full details of the story for the first time.

"I don't think Iran can ignore Brazil as easily as it ignored other countries," Ashtiani's son, Sajad, told the Guardian today. "It is very important that Brazil, as one of Iran's most significant allies in the world, has offered a haven for my mother."

He hoped Turkey, which also carries influence with Tehran, would add its voice. "No countries in the world can have such impacts that Brazil and Turkey can have on Iran now. These two countries can save my mother's life," said Sajad. >>> Saeed Kamali Dehghan, Tom Phillips in Rio de Janeiro, and Rory Carroll | Sunday, August 01, 2010

Iran Stoning Sentence Woman Asks to Be Reunited with Her Children
THE GUARDIAN: Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani's supporters call for support to free her from prison, after sentence was changed to hanging

The Iranian woman whose sentence of death by stoning was commuted to hanging after an international campaign, today sent a message from inside Tabriz prison calling for further support so that she might be reunited with her children.

Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, a 43-year-old mother of two, said she thinks of nothing other than hugging her children and that she was mentally broken when authorities flogged her 99 times in front of her then 17-year-old son, Sajad.

She thanked the world for launching the campaign for her release but said part of her "heart is frozen". "Every night before I go to sleep, I think who would throw stones at me?", she said.

The message was read by Mina Ahadi, of the Iran Committee against Stoning (ICAS), at a press conference in Conway Hall, in London, this morning.

"Put Sakineh's picture beside Neda Agha-Soltan's and don't let Iran repeat what it did with Neda again with Sakineh," said Ahadi, an Iranian human rights activist. Agha-Soltan was shot to death in the aftermath of Iran's disputed election in June 2009 and became a symbol of Iran's post-election rebellion. >>> Saeed Kamali Dehghan | Friday, July 30, 2010

Iran Stoning Case Woman Ordered to Name Campaigners
THE GUARDIAN: Mother interrogated in prison over photograph and children advised to stay silent or face arrest

Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani. Photograph: The Guardian
Iran has put fresh pressure on the woman it last month sentenced to death by stoning, demanding the names of those involved in the campaign for her release.

The case of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani has drawn international attention after her children launched a campaign for her release. After a global outcry last month, Iran's judiciary said Sakineh would not be put to death by stoning, but still faced execution by hanging.

The 43-year-old mother of two has been interrogated inside Tabriz prison over the names of the people who have been in touch with her family and the way her photo has been distributed among the media, the Guardian has learned.

Sakineh's photo, which has been distributed all over the world, has become a defining image for human rights activists campaigning against stoning in Iran.

"Sakineh has been under big pressure since the world has paid attention to her case", a source close to her family told the Guardian. "Recently she was questioned and asked to advise her children to remain silent, otherwise they will be arrested too. International attention is the only hope for Sakineh's release", the source added.

Sakineh's lawyer, Mohammad Mostafaei, has received a letter from the Iranian intelligence service summoning him to a meeting in Evin prison in the next three days to "clarify certain issues".

Mostafaei is an acclaimed lawyer who volunteered to represent Sakineh when he heard her story.

Sakineh received 99 lashes, but was subsequently accused of adultery during the trial of a man accused of murdering her husband. Iran's judiciary has said Sakineh faces execution by hanging "because she is convicted of murder". >>> Saeed Kamali Dehghan | Thursday, July 22, 2010

Sign the petition to free Sakineh here

Iran Halts Woman's Stoning 'For Now'
THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: Iran's judiciary chief has halted "for the moment" the execution by stoning of a woman accused of adultery, according to the state news agency.

Sakineh Mohammadi-Ashtiani, a 43-year-old mother of two, was sentenced to death by stoning after being found guilty of adultery by an Iranian court, a ruling that sparked outcry in Western countries. >>> | Sunday, July 11, 2010

Related articles here

’Help Us Save Our Mother’: Pleas from the Children of ‘Adulterous’ Iranian Woman Who Faces Death by Stoning
MAIL ONLINE: An Iranian mother-of-two faces death by stoning after being convicted of adultery.

Amnesty International today urged the Iranian authorities to halt the execution of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani.

The human rights organisation describes stoning as a ‘grotesque and unacceptable penalty which Iran should abolish immediately’.

Ashtiani’s children joined in with a heart-breaking appeal to the international community to help spare their mother’s life.

‘Please help end this nightmare and do not let it turn into a reality,’ begged her daughter, Farideh, 16, and her son, Sajad, 20.

‘Explaining the minutes and seconds of our lives is very difficult. Words lose their meaning in these agonising moments. Help us save our mother.’

Ashtiani, 43, was convicted of having an ‘illicit relationship’ with two men in May 2006 and received 99 lashes as her sentence.

Despite this, she was later convicted of ‘adultery while being married’ and was sentenced to death by stoning. >>> Michael Theodoulou | Thursday, July 01, 2010

Women in Islam: The Stoning of Soraya M.

Shohreh Aghdashloo: 'The Stoning of Soraya M.' Interview

New Dark Age Alert! Pictured: Islamic Militants Stone Man to Death for Adultery in Somalia as Villagers Are Forced to Watch
MAIL ONLINE: This barbaric scene belongs in the Dark Ages, but pictures emerged today of a group of Islamic militants who forced villagers to watch as they stoned a man to death for adultery.

Mohamed Abukar Ibrahim, a 48-year-old, was buried in a hole up to his chest and pelted with rocks until he died.

The group responsible, Hizbul Islam, also shot dead a man they claimed was a murderer.

But the verdict was so shocking that it prompted a gun battle between rivals within the group that left three militants dead, witnesses said.

The executions took place yesterday in Afgoye, some 20 miles south-west of the capital of Mogadishu.

Hizbul Islam fighters ordered hundreds of residents to a field, where a rebel judge announced that the two men had confessed to murder and adultery.

A woman who had confessed to fornication had been sentenced to 100 lashes, he added.

'This is their day of justice,' the judge, Osman Siidow Hasan, told the crowd. 'We investigated and they confessed.' >>> Mail Foreign Service | Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Somali Woman Stoned for Adultery
BBC: A 20-year-old woman divorcee accused of committing adultery in Somalia has been stoned to death by Islamists in front of a crowd of about 200 people.

A judge working for the militant group al-Shabab said she had had an affair with an unmarried 29-year-old man.

He said she gave birth to a still-born baby and was found guilty of adultery. Her boyfriend was given 100 lashes.

It is thought to be the second time a woman has been stoned to death for adultery by al-Shabab.

The group controls large swathes of southern Somalia where they have imposed a strict interpretation of Islamic law which has been unpopular with many Somalis.

'Lenient'

According to reports from a small village near the town of Wajid, 250 miles (400km) north-west of the capital, Mogadishu, the woman was taken to the public grounds where she was buried up to her waist.

She was then stoned to death in front of the crowds on Tuesday afternoon.

The judge, Sheikh Ibrahim Abdirahman, said her unmarried boyfriend was given 100 lashes at the same venue. >>> | Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Amnesty Calls for Repeal of New Anti-gay Laws in Indonesia
PINK NEWS: Amnesty International has demanded that a new Indonesian bylaw that endorses stoning to death for adultery and caning of up to 100 lashes for homosexuality should be repealed immediately.

The local Islamic Criminal Code was passed by the Aceh Provincial House of Representatives on Monday. 
It forbids a number of acts including alcohol consumption, gambling, intimacy between unmarried couples, adultery and fornication, and homosexuality.

In a statement released today Amnesty International said:

"We are concerned by provisions that criminalize adultery and homosexuality.

"Indonesian authorities must ensure that such provisions are repealed in conformity with international law and standards relating to physical and mental integrity and equality before the law."

The bill caused outcry from human rights groups when it was revealed on Monday.

"The new criminal bylaw flies in the face of international human rights law as well as provisions of the Indonesian constitution," said Sam Zarifi, Amnesty International’s Asia-Pacific director.

"Stoning to death is particularly cruel and constitutes torture, which is absolutely forbidden under all circumstances in international law." >>> Staff Writer, Pink News | Friday, September 18, 2009

Aceh Govt. Refuses to Sign Stoning By-law
THE JAKARTA POST: The Aceh provincial government will not sign the controversial Islamic bylaw allowing adulterers to be stoned to death, an official said.

Hamid Zein, the head of the legal bureau of the Aceh governor’s office, said Thursday that the administration has firmly rejected the bylaw passed by the legislative council on Monday.

“As long as the executive and legislative bodies do not settle differences in the application of [capital punishment by] stoning, the Aceh government will not sign the bylaw,” Hamid said.

In the deliberation he said government representatives had repeatedly stated objections to the inclusion of the stoning penalty for adulterers in the Islamic criminal code (jinayat). Aceh is the country’s only province with special provisions allowing it to have Islamic sharia-based laws.

However, following initial endorsement of the bylaw, Home Minister Mardiyanto said the government would file a review to the Supreme Court, saying it was “detrimental” to Acehnese and would “frighten” visitors and investors, as well as possibly not respecting the [national] constitution.

His statement signaled the first time the central government had intervened in the issuance of rules and legislation by the Aceh administration and council.

The National Commission on Violence against Women has gone further, calling for a judicial review of the 2006 law on Aceh’s governance that provided its authority to issue sharia-based laws, saying that the bylaw was contrary to human rights.

Governor Irwandi Yusuf on Thursday declined to comment. >>> Hotli Simanjuntak, The Jakarta Post , Bandah Aceh | Friday, September 18, 2009