Leila Kholghi and Abolfazl Barat Vakili Sentenced to Death for Adultery
Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); November 2, 2023: Branch 5 of the Tehran Criminal Court has sentenced Leila Kholghi Sakachayi and Abolfazl Barat Vakili to hanging for adultery charges. Branch 12 of the Tehran Criminal Court has also sentenced another woman, Mitra to death for the same charges and the man in the case, Khosro, to lashes.
Sex outside of marriage is criminalised by the Islamic Republic and if one party is married, it is considered adultery with the married party receiving the death penalty.
Iran Human Rights once again draws the international community’s urgent attention to the increasingly high death sentences and executions in Iran. Director, Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam said: “The international community shouldn’t tolerate executions being carried out for consensual sex or the expression of an opinion in the 21st Century by a government that has a seat at the United Nations.”
“Unfortunately, the international community’s lack of appropriate response to the executions of a man for adultery and two men for blasphemy charges in spring, encouraged Islamic Republic authorities to increase the number of such sentences. The political cost of such executions can be raised by civil society campaigns and political pressure by the international community,” he added.
According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, a man and a woman were sentenced to death for adultery charges by Branch 5 of the Tehran Criminal Court on 22 August 2023. Their identities have been established as Leila Kholghi Sakachayi and Abolfazl Barat Vakili who appealed the verdict.
According to the court verdict received by Iran Human Rights, secret recordings that were filmed without her knowledge were used as evidence against both Leila and Abolfazl. Leila was arrested on 1st January 2023 and is currently held in Ward 5 of Qarchak Prison.
They were sentenced to hanging for adultery based on Articles 2, 12, 14, 15, 140, 141, 160, 162, 211, 221, 225 and 226 of the Islamic Penal Code.
According to Iran newspaper, as well as Leila Kholghi and Abolfazl Barat Vakili, another woman has also been sentenced to death for adultery charges by Branch 12 of the Tehran Criminal Court. Only identified as Mitra, her husband had also filed the complaint against her based on video recordings. The man in the case who was named as Khosro, has received a lashing sentence.
Zena mohsen(eh-f) or adultery between married parties is punishable by stoning. The IPC has retained the punishment of stoning for those charged with adultery (Article 225) but the courts have been provided with the option to impose the death sentence by alternative means upon the approval from the Head of Judiciary “If it is not possible to perform stoning.”
According to zena laws, upon proposal of the court of final judgement and approval of the Head of Judiciary, if the offence is proven by testimony of four witnesses or defendant confessing four times, the defendant shall be sentenced to the death penalty [hanging]; otherwise, each one of them shall be given one hundred lashes.
Stoning, which is carried out by a group throwing stones at the defendant until they die, is considered cruel and barbaric by the international community. Iran is one of six countries to still retain stoning in their penal codes.
No implemented stoning punishments have been reported since 2010. This is mainly due to the increasing international pressure in the decade prior, reaching its peak following the campaign to save Sakineh Ashtiani in 2010.
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