IRAN: YEARS ON DEATH ROW FOR BRIDE TOO YOUNG TO BE STONED

within months of her arranged marriage in Iran, Azar Bagheri had been charged with adultery and sentenced to be stoned to death when was only 14 years old. For the past four years she has been languishing on death row while the courts waited for her to reach maturity. According to Mina Ahadi, an Iranian human rights activist, the teenager has been subjected to two mock stonings in the yard of Tabriz prison.
On each occasion she was taken from her cell and buried up to her shoulders in the yard of the prison, as if being prepared to be stoned.
According to Ahadi, Bagheri was denounced by her own husband, who accused her of committing adultery with two men.
Bagheri's lawyers are now planning to ask judges to reduce her sentence to 99 lashes, Ahadi said.