Iran says man stoned to death for adultery

TEHRAN, July 10 (Reuters) An Iranian has been stoned to death for adultery but his partner has been given a stay of execution while her case is reviewed, an Iranian judiciary spokesman said today.

Jafar Kiani and his partner Mokarameh Ebrahimi were sentenced to be stoned, causing a storm of protest among Western rights groups. Last month, Iranian media said both death sentences had been put on hold.

According to Iran's Islamic penal code, men convicted of adultery should be buried up to their waists and women up to their breasts for stoning. Stones used should not be large enough to kill the person immediately.

''The stoning to death of Kiani took place recently in a village near the (western city of) Takestan in the presence of the judge who issued the sentence,'' judiciary spokesman Alireza Jamshidi told a weekly news conference.

He said the sentence was carried out in ''past weeks'' but gave no precise date.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour, expressed serious concern today over Kiani's stoning to death, urging Iran to stop the scheduled ''stoning of Ebrahimi and all other such executions''.

''Stoning is in clear violation of international law, which also limits the death penalty to only the most serious, violent crimes,'' Arbour said in a statement.

Iran's judiciary chief Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi-Shahroudi, who ordered a moratorium on execution by stoning in 2002, has ordered Ebrahimi's sentence to be reviewed, Jamshidi said.

The judiciary stated previously there had been no stonings since 2002, but rights groups say they have occurred since then, mainly in rural areas.

''Execution of Ebrahimi's sentence has been stopped for the time being on the order of Shahroudi,'' Jamshidi said.

All execution orders must be upheld by Iran's Supreme Court.

In an April report, Amnesty said Iran was one of four countries where the number of executions had increased in 2006.

Western human rights groups repeatedly criticise Iran over ''arbitrary arrests, torture and ill-treatment'' of women and have called on the Iranian authorities to abolish the death penalty.

Iran dismisses such charges, saying it is acting on the basis of Islamic sharia law. It accuses the West of rights violations.

REUTERS SBC VV2101