Iran sentences 51 people to death by STONETING for adultery as victims are buried in sand and beaten with stones

SHOCKING secret records show Iran has sentenced 51 people to death by stoning for adultery, with stones thrown at victims’ heads while trapped in the sand.

A leaked trove of documents smuggled out of the country’s notorious prisons exposes the barbaric reality of Iran’s judicial system as 23 women and 28 men, aged just 25, await brutal execution.

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The records, obtained by The Sun Online from sources within the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), include the names, age, sentencing organ and place of detention of the accused.

It is the first time that an official list of people sentenced to stoning by the Iranian judiciary has been obtained within the regime.

Iran has one of the world’s most appalling human rights records and also holds the staggering title of having the highest execution rate, according to activists.

Death by stoning came into force in Iran after the 1979 revolution, and although the judiciary imposed a moratorium on the heinous practice in 2002, many are still sentenced to this cruel punishment.

Among Iran’s cruel laws, crimes that can carry the death penalty include rape, adultery, armed robbery and murder — something the country’s law enforcement agencies have long said is essential to maintaining public safety.

Iran’s Penal Code even includes specific instructions on how the brutal execution should be carried out, stating: “The size of the stone used in stoning must not be too large to kill the convict by one or two throws, and at the same time it must not be too small to be called a stone.”

The victims’ hands are first tied before being covered with a sheet that is tied in several places, including around the neck, waist and ankles.

They are then buried in a sand-filled ditch — with women leaving only their shoulders and head off the ground, while men are uncovered from the waist up.

Then the horror stoning begins, with stones being pounded relentlessly at the victim, sometimes for hours of excruciating suffering, until they die – bloody and in pain.

A doctor hired to oversee the execution will periodically interrupt the stoning to check that the victim is dead.

If not, the brutal brawl continues.

Newly obtained documents seen by The Sun show that 51 men and women between the ages of 25 and 59 were sentenced to death in September 2020 – when Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi was still chief justice.

In the past, the uncompromising cleric Raisi – known by some as The Butcher – has reportedly ordered the torture of pregnant women, throwing prisoners off cliffs and flogging people with electric cables.

He earned his sick nickname for his alleged involvement in the mass execution of some 30,000 political prisoners in 1988.

The documents show that in September 2020, Raisi sentenced 51 men and women to death, all convicted of adultery and some also of other crimes such as kidnapping, drug possession and even producing porn.

Almost two years later, they are still hiding in Iran’s hell prisons, fearing that they might be summoned for stoning at any moment.

‘CONSTANT FEAR’

Hossein Abedini, deputy director of the NCRI’s UK office, told The Sun Online: “The Iranian regime’s brutal practice of stoning is enshrined in the mullahs’ medieval penal code, which also allows for limb amputation and eye gouging.

“Stoning is an anti-Islamic and inhumane practice.

“The mullahs’ regime is rotten to the core. Such acts of repression are a futile attempt to contain a disgruntled society on the verge of explosion.”

Mr Abedini added: “It is impossible to imagine the agonizing experience of someone awaiting stoning.

“Victims live in constant fear of the moment prison guards will open their cell door and call them to serve their sentence.

“Some of the people on the list we received from the mullahs’ prison organization have been waiting for their sentences for years, so you can imagine their agony.”

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Shocking photos sent to The Sun by the People’s Mujahideen of Iran (PMOI) – an organization affiliated with the NCRI – show the inhumane conditions inmates are forced to live in while chronic overcrowding wreaks havoc in cells.

Pictures show men sleeping side by side like sardines in a can with barely enough room to move.

Hackers have previously released horrifying videos of inmates being beaten at Iran’s notorious Evin prison, where prisoners are raped and executed.

Torture is rampant in Iran’s prisons, according to human rights groups, including electric shocks, flogging, waterboarding and sexual violence against prisoners.

Prisoners have previously said they were subjected to cruel torture in prison, when police officers allegedly held guns to their heads and kicked them until they spit blood.

It comes as Amnesty revealed that Iran was the driving force behind increases in global executions and the number of death sentences passed last year – at 20 percent and 40 percent respectively.

The organization’s annual death sentences and executions highlighted that at least 595 people were executed last year, while at least 2,052 death sentences were imposed worldwide.

The report said: “The increase in executions was primarily due to the increase in the annual figure for Iran (from at least 246 in 2020 to at least 314 in 2021, a 28 percent increase), which was the highest figure since 2017 was .

“The increase in Iran occurred particularly in executions of people convicted of drug-related offenses (132), which accounted for 42 percent of the total and represented a more than five-fold increase from 2020.”

Human rights organizations have repeatedly condemned the practice of the death penalty while calling for an end to other barbaric punishments inflicted in Iran.

Its “eye-for-an-eye” laws — known as qisas — see prisoners subjected to brutal punishments designed to inflict as much pain as possible in retaliation, including gouging out eyes, chopping off hands, and even en masse , public hanging.

Worryingly, victims’ families are often encouraged to participate in law-based executions themselves.

Mr Abedini said the PMOI wanted the regime’s human rights record to be presented to the United Nations Security Council.

He added: “The UK government and its democratic partners have a duty to speak out against a regime that continues to execute dissidents and is dying for two decades in the 21st century.

“If resistance to foreign aggression is to be rightly supported, then a clear, resolute stance in the face of such atrocities by the Iranian regime against its own people seems imperative.

“The dossier on the horrific and systematic human rights abuses in Iran, particularly the regime’s behavior in prisons, deserves to be referred to the United Nations Security Council.

“The leaders of the regime, particularly Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and President Ebrahim Raisi, are facing four decades of crimes against humanity before the International Criminal Court (ICC).”