AFP, Washington, July 9, 2010  – The United States indicated Friday it opposed any execution — whatever the method — for adultery, as Iran appeared to back down on stoning a woman to death after a global outcry.
’We don’t think the punishment would fit the crime,’ State Department spokesman Mark Toner told reporters when asked if the United States would oppose any execution over adultery.
The United States, which has no diplomatic relations with Tehran, said it could not confirm whether accused adulteress SakinehMohammadi-Ashtiani would be spared death by stoning and whether she still faced death by other means.
’We would urge the Iranian authorities to uphold their due process commitments under International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,’ he said.
He was referring to the 1966 UN treaty on fundamental freedoms, which Iran ratified before the 1979 Islamic revolution overthrew the pro-Western shah.
The United States, the only major Western nation to practice the death penalty, is also part of the treaty but lodged reservations, due in particular to the language over capital punishment.
Adultery is illegal in some US jurisdictions but is rarely prosecuted.
The Iranian embassy in London said in a statement reported by The Times that Ashtiani would no longer be stoned to death.
Her lawyer in Iran, however, said he had yet to receive any confirmation of the news, and bemoaned the vagueness of the statement which did not say whether she might be killed by other means.