Tehran: Eight women and one man convicted of adultery are set to be stoned to death in Iran, activists said on Sunday.
Lawyer and women's rights activist, Shadi Sadr, said the nine were convicted of adultery in separate cases in different Iranian cities.
"Their verdicts are approved, and they may be executed at any time," she told reporters.
Sadr, who has been leading a campaign in Iran against stoning deaths since 2006, said trial protocol was not applied properly in the cases. Six of the nine were convicted based solely on judges' decisions with no witnesses or the presence of their lawyers during their confessions, she said.
Most of the nine come from areas of Iran that have low rates of literacy and some did not understand the cases against them, she said.
One of Sadr's colleagues, Mohammad Mostafai, said his client, Malak Qorbani, had pleaded guilty to adultery even though she did not know the meaning of the charge.
The nine are between 27 and 50-years-old, among them a male music teacher who was convicted of adultery for having an affair with one of his students, the activists said.
Amend
"We are trying to stop the implementation of their verdicts. And secondly, we want to amend the country's penal law, in which death by stoning is prescribed," Sadr said.
Calls to judiciary officials were not immediately returned yesterday.
Under Iran's Islamic laws, adultery is the only capital offence punishable by stoning. Other capital offences in Iran include murder, rape, armed robbery and apostasy.
