Iran
Stones Six To Death
APO
10/26/97 9:30 AM
TEHRAN,
Iran (AP) -- Three men and three women have been stoned to death
in public in northern Iran after a court found them guilty of
adultery and prostitution,
a newspaper reported Sunday.
Stoning
is rare in Iran with the sentence carried out about once or twice
a year.
The
Farsi-language Salam newspaper said Kheirollah Javanmard, Ali
Mokhtarpour and Parviz Hassanzadeh confessed before a court in
Sari, 155 miles northeast of Tehran, to committing adultery and
running a prostitution ring along with Fataneh Danesh, Massumeh
Einy and Marziyeh Falah.
"This
group was active in corrupting Iranian youth in different
ways," the paper quoted the court as saying.
The
report did not say when the six were tried or executed.
It
said the stoning was carried out by local citizens in public in
Khazar Abad, near the Caspian Sea.
Under
Iran's Islamic laws, prostitution and adultery are illegal and
punishable by death.