Rights group says Afghanistan must reject proposal to for stoning as punishment for adultery

KABUL, Afghanistan – Human Rights Watch says that the Afghan government should reject a proposal to reintroduce public stoning as a punishment for adultery, but the Justice Ministry says such a law has not yet been submitted.

The human rights organization said Monday that a working group that is assisting in drafting Afghanistan's new penal code has proposed including public execution by stoning as a punishment for adultery.

But Mohammad Ashraf Azimi, the head of the Justice Ministry's punishment laws department, says such a proposal has not yet been submitted for review.

He added that the new penal code was a work in progress and that at least two more years were needed before it was completed.