Iran Reportedly Ceases Its Practice of Stoning

TEHRAN —  Iran has stopped stoning as a form of capital punishment in an apparent bid to ease European Union human rights concerns ahead of a possible trade agreement, an Iranian newspaper reported Thursday.

The daily newspaper Bahar quoted Qorbanali Dorri Najafabadi, a former intelligence minister who heads the Supreme Administrative Court, as saying that “the practice has been stopped for a while.”

The newspaper also cited a reformist lawmaker as saying that the head of the judiciary had instructed judges to stop ordering death by stoning. Judiciary officials were not immediately available to comment.

Under Iran’s strict Islamic law, men and women convicted of adultery are normally sentenced to death by stoning. The condemned are partly buried in a pit and then pelted with stones. According to the law, the stones must be big enough to injure but not kill with just a few blows. If the victims dig themselves out, they are acquitted.

Officials in the Islamic Republic refuse to say how often stonings are carried out, but at least two women were reported to have been stoned to death last year.

Although stonings are rare, execution by hanging is common for murder, rape, drug smuggling and armed robbery.

The European Union and Iran began negotiations on a trade agreement this month, but the EU has insisted that Iran take steps to improve its human rights record.