Such official statements are all the more worrying in the light of the approval by the Islamic Consultative Assembly (Irans Parliament) in early May 1996 of an amendment to the Penal Code, bringing espionage into the remit of the moharebeh (enmity against God) clause, and specifying a mandatory death sentence [There is no precise definition of the moharebeh clause which has been applied very widely since the first version of the Law of Hodoud and Qesas was adopted in 1982. Article 190 of the current Penal Code stipulates four possible penalties for those convicted under this clause: crucifixion (for three consecutive days and nights in a manner which should not cause death); the death penalty; banishment; or amputation. Article 191 states that the judge has discretion over choosing which one of these penalties to applycopied and pasted from an Amnesty International document about Iran.
Wolfgang