A gay couple was sentenced to death in Iran. The wife of one of the men brought video evidence. However, despite her request for sparing capital punishments, the judge upheld the father’s demands.
Gay couple gets death sentence
In Iran, the supreme court gave death sentences for a 27-year-old and his 33 yeard lover for adultery after the man’s father-in-law denied compassion. The man’s wife presented the video evidence of her husband cheating to the police. She also asked the courts to spare him from the death penalty according to the reports.
However, her father demanded the implementation of the death penalty if the sentence is in his favor. According to Iranian law, if the victim’s family is ready for forgiving the capital crime, the convict can be given a jail sentence or pardoned. Since Iran’s 1979 revolution, the interpretation of Islamic sharia force reveals that adultery is punishable by stoning. However, Tehran changed the law in 2013, allowing judges to provide alternative execution options, generally hanging. However, the court order was not very clear in this case.
Execution statistics for Iran
Additionally, data from Amnesty International shows that Iran carried out 246 executions last year. Out of them, only one was public. However, the human rights group does not have any data on the breakdown of crimes. Iran currently has the highest rate of executions per capita in the world. The country had over 507 executions in 2017 and 567 in 2016. However, Iran is claiming that the human rights group is exaggerating the data. They are also claiming that executions “after a protracted court procedure.”