49-year-old Music Teacher From Sari, Iran May be Stoned After Being Convicted of Adultery

Abdollah Farivar-Moqaddam, a 49-year-old music teacher from Sari, northern Iran, may be stoned after being convicted of adultery, Radio Farda quoted his relatives as saying on January 31. His sister said that Iran’s Supreme Court has approved a stoning sentence that may be carried out as soon as written confirmation of its approval arrives in Sari.

Farivar is married and was convicted of having an affair with a girl in 2005; his family has said there was no “illegitimate” liaison as he had contracted a “99-year temporary marriage” with the girl — or she had legally become a concubine.

His sister told Radio Farda that Farivar was arrested in November or December 2005, and the local judiciary began to process his case in late 2006. She said the judiciary ignored evidence that he contracted a temporary marriage, and used what she said was unsound or even fictitious confessions obtained after his arrest.

“His entry and departure from the court was not registered at the prison; in fact there was no trial allowing these people to say that he confessed on this or that date,” she said. She said she has sought in vain to take the “overlooked” evidence to senior officials, and tried to see judiciary chief Ayatollah Mahmud Hashemi-Shahrudi in Qom on January 28.

She was told he was not working for the next two months, until after the Persian New Year holidays in late March, she said. It was not immediately clear when local officials would be instructed to carry out the execution.

Source Radio Free Europe

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