Brussels - The European Union on Tuesday strongly condemned the execution by stoning of two men in the north-eastern Iranian city of Mashad, calling for the case to be probed and for the practice to be banned. "The European Union calls on the Islamic Republic of Iran to abolish the cruel and inhuman punishment of stoning from its legal code," the Czech presidency of the EU said in a statement issued on behalf of its 27 member states.
Iran's Fars news agency had earlier quoted an Iranian judiciary spokesman as saying the two men were stoned to death last month for having committed murder and adultery.
The spokesman said that although the judiciary had recommended abolishing stoning, which has been criticized by human rights organizations as cruel and inhumane, the ban has not yet been turned into a law.
The EU called on Iran to enact the judiciary's 2008 pledge to suspend the practice.
"These most recent executions not only go against the suspension, they represent a worryingly retrograde step, and we urge the Islamic Republic of Iran to ensure such statements are immediately enforced and enshrined in legislation," the statement out of Brussels said.
During the stoning process, men are buried up to their waist and women up to their necks and then stones are thrown against their head and body until they die. If a person manages to escape from the hole, he or she is acquitted and allowed to go free.
According to reports quoted by the EU, this was the case with a third man who had also been sentenced with the other two but who escape the stoning pit and survived.
The EU statement was also endorsed by other non-EU members such as Turkey, Croatia, Macedonia, Iceland, Norway, Ukraine and Moldova.
