Teen Katya Koren Allegedly Stoned to Death for Entering Beauty Pageant | CBS News

Reports allege that Katya Koren was stoned to death for participating in beauty contests. The investigation is ongoing. (Photo: Courtesy of facebook)

A teenage Muslim girl’s body was found dumped in a forest the Crimean peninsula one week after she was reported missing. Local media initially reported that she was stoned to death by suspects claiming the 19-year-old has violated Sharia law by taking part in a beauty contest, a British newspaper reports.

Will Stewart of the Daily Mail writes that Koren’s appeared to have suffered head injuries and been strangled. However, the Daily Telegraph writes that local police are claiming “her killing had nothing to do with sectarian violence and that the girl had been killed by a psychologically troubled classmate who had given her a lift on his moped and then robbed and possibly raped her before battering her to death with a rock.”

Sergei Reznikov, a senior policeman involved in the case, told the Telegraph: “A student did it, killing his classmate. There is no other underlying reason, neither religious nor linked with inter-ethnic conflicts.”

Initial reports had indicated that three Muslim youths killed her, saying her death was justified under Islamic law because taking part in a beauty contest is a violation of it.

The Daily Mail reported that one 16-year-old suspect under arrest told police Koren had “violated the laws of Sharia.”

According to an official report on a Crimean government website, the 16-year-old classmate confessed to her murder, and gave as his reason, “I just wanted to kill her.”

While the area is home to some 250,000 Muslims, incidents of Sharia Law being enforced are almost unheard of, the Telegraph reports. The 16-year-old suspect allegedly has a history of mental health issues, and is being evaluated currently for whether he is of sound mind.

Muslim Girl in Beauty Contest Stoned to Death | CBS News

 

Iran’s Grim History of Death by Stoning – by Mike Wooldridge | BBC News

Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani

Iran has said Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, 43, will be spared being stoned to death for adultery while leaving it unclear what fate does await her. The mother of two was arrested in 2005 and subsequently convicted of having an “illicit relationship” for which she was given 99 lashes witnessed by her son, then in his late teens. Her case was then reopened and she was convicted of adultery during her marriage, for which she was given the sentence of death by stoning.

Iran’s existing penal code provides for this form of execution for one crime – adultery, an offence “against divine law” – though murder, rape, armed robbery and drug trafficking are also punishable by death. Human rights campaigners say Iran has one of the highest rates of executions in the world.

Death by stoning came into use in Iran after the 1979 revolution. The case has sparked an international outcry Amnesty International says that at least eight people were stoned to death in 1986. The group says some people have linked this to the passing of a law that year which allowed the hiring of judges with minimal experience and that it led to an increase in the number of judges from a traditional religious background. In 1995, Amnesty International received reports that as many as 10 people may have been stoned to death that year. In 2002, the Iranian judiciary placed a moratorium on death by stoning.

But such sentences have continued to be reported. And Amnesty said this week that eight men and three women were awaiting the carrying out of sentences of stoning and since 2006 at least six people had been put to death in this manner. It also said 15 people had been saved from stoning.

The brief statement from the Iranian embassy in London announcing that Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani would not be executed by stoning said that “this kind of punishment has rarely been implemented” in Iran. It also said stoning was not in a draft Islamic penal code currently under consideration in the Iranian parliament.

Excerpt, read entire article: Iran’s Grim History of Death by Stoning – by Mike Wooldridge | BBC News