Iran:- Two sentenced to death by stoning after gay video found on mobile phone

Human rights campaigners are anxiously waiting to hear whether authorities yesterday carried out a planned execution by stoning in Piranshahr in the Iranian province of Kurdistan.  Sadly, the plight of the two men due to be put to death hasn't caught the attention of the mainstream media in the way that other recent cases have, despite the efforts of the International Committee Against Stoning to raise the alarm.

According to the news we have received Ayub and Mosleh, 20 and 21 years old, are in danger of execution by stoning in the city of Piranshahr in the province of Kurdistan. The two young men are currently imprisoned in the city of Orumieh. They have been accused of having and filming homosexual relations. Pictures of President Ahmadinejad were incorporated into the film and loaded onto their mobile telephones. In additions, headshots of Khamenei pasted over a donkey were also found on the mobiles.

This film fell into the hands of the regime’s agents in Piranshahr who immediately ordered the young men’s execution by stoning to instill fear in the people of Iran.

The International Committee Against Stoning calls for immediate action to protest the Islamic Regime’s medieval and brutal sentence against these two young men.

Gay Middle East has also been covering the story, and reports that the planned execution has been condemned by some Muslim groups outside Iran.

The Association of British Muslims (AOBM), alongside an international coalition of Muslim organisations, has condemned the sentence and said that they do not see anything in the Qur'an to justify such punishment.  "Capital punishment is only allowed for murder, and even then as a last resort." Emphasised Dan Littauer, Human Rights and Press Director of AOBM.