Syria man stones daughter to death

Beirut, Oct. 21: An elderly Syrian took part in stoning his daughter to death for alleged adultery, in a video posted on YouTube by the ISIS group on Tuesday. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the execution took place in August or September in an ISIScontrolled rural area in the east of the central province of Hama.

It was the latest in spate of videotaped executions that the jihadists have posted on social media as they impose their extreme version of Islamic Shariat law across a swathe of Syria and neighbouring Iraq.

In the video, a bearded gunman in combat fatigues stands behind the father, who is dressed in the white robe and chequered headdress typical of the Syrian countryside. They both face the young black- clad daughter as the gunman addresses her in the classical Arabic of the Quran.

“The punishment is the result of crimes which you committed under no duress,” he says. “You must accept the punishment of God. Do you accept the punishment of God?” She nods her head in assent, then turns to her father and asks his forgiveness. She is permitted to speak briefly before the stoning commences. “I say to every woman: preserve your honour ... And I appeal to every father to pay attention to the surroundings your daughter lives in,” she says.

Her father then takes a rope, and ties it round his daughter’s waist before forcing her to lie down. The ISIS gunman then orders punishment to begin and the father joins in stoning her to death. The video drew condemnation from the mainstream Syrian Opposition in exile.