NCRI – On Tuesday, Ali Reza Jamshidi, mullahs’ judiciary spokesman in response to a question regarding a man who had been stoned to death recently in the city of Rasht (northern Iran) said, “Stoning was carried out during the Iranian month of Esfand,” which ended on March 20.
Iranian Resistance had previously reported, “On March 5, a 30-year-old man from Pars-Abad of Moghan, northern Iran, was stoned to death in the Lakan prison in the northern city of Rasht. He was identified as Vali Azad, an employee of the Commerce Department. The mullahs' local judiciary refused to release the body to his family and buried him in an unknown location.”
The state-run daily Aftab-e Yazd reported on Tuesday that a 30-year-old government employee identified only as "V", was stoned to death in Rasht prison on March 5, further confirming the report.
In another case, on January 13, the mullahs’ judiciary spokesman confirmed reports first exposed by the Iranian Resistance about the secret and brutal stoning on December 26, 2008 of three people in the Behesht-e Reza cemetery in the holy city of Mashhad.
Prior to this, in a deceptive move, Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi, head of the mullahs’ judiciary, had announced a ban on implementing stoning sentences. The regime’s judiciary spokesman explained about this clear inconsistency as well as the rationale for implementing the cruel punishment by stoning, and said, “Considering the independence of judges, it is possible that as long as the ban on stoning has not become law, the recommendations of the head of the judiciary would not be acted upon.”
