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Iranian authorities are preparing to stone a mother of two to death for adultery, according to human rights groups.

Authorities executed Mokarrameh Ebrahimi’s partner Ja'far Kiani by public stoning on July 5, 2007.

The couple were charged with adultery for not registering their marriage and had spent the last 11 years in prison along with their children.

Jafar Kiani was stoned in Aghche-kand, a small village near Takistan, Ghazvin.

Human rights groups led by Stop Stoning Forever Campaign spread the news about their case around the world and succeeded in pressuring the authorities to postpone the couple’s stoning which was originally scheduled for June 21, 2007.

Facing strong opposition from the people of Takestan and their parliamentary representative, Rajab Rahmani, execution was carried out in a village away from the town.

Iranian law stipulates that the judge who has issued the sentence would have to be present in person to throw the first stone.

Unofficial sources have reported that only a few of the villagers participated in the stoning and the sentence was mostly carried out by the officials and the related service men.

Punishment of stoning is carried out by burying up the male convict up to his waist with his hands tied behind his back, while a female offender is buried up to her neck with her hands also buried.

Stones and rocks are thrown by the spectators and officials attending the public execution at the convict who is theoretically released if he is able to free himself.

Capital offences in Iran include murder, rape, armed robbery, wickedness, serious drug trafficking, repeated sodomy, adultery or prostitution, treason and espionage.

Stoning was widely imposed in the early years after the 1979 Islamic revolution that overthrew the pro-Western Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and brought hard-line Islamic cleric Ayatollah Khomeini to power.

In recent years, it has seldom been applied, although the government rarely confirms when it carries out such an execution.

The Iranian women's group Stop Stoning Forever said that Ebrahimi and Kiani were living together after Mokarrameh had been thrown out of the family home by her husband.

Both the man and woman have children from their previous marriages.