Man and lover sentenced to death for adultery after father-in-law insists on execution

Iran will sentence a husband and his lover to death for adultery after the man's father-in-law insisted they die, according to reports.

The man's wife is said to have given police video clips of her husband's infidelity early this year, but also appealed for him and his mistress to be spared the ultimate penalty, local media reports.

It was the wife's dad who demanded the pair be executed and a court found in his favour, Shargh Daily reports.

Under Iran's form of Sharia law the victim's family can forgive the accused and their sentence can be reduced from death to a pardon or jail sentence.

Adultery is a capital crime in Iran following the interpretation of Sharia law installed after the country's Islamic revolution in 1979.

The original law made the crime punishable by stoning, but Tehran modified this in 2013 and judges can now order alternative methods - usually hanging.

Adultery is punishable by stoning under Iran's form of Sharia law ( Getty Images)

It's currently unclear which form of execution was ordered in the couple's case.

Last year Iran carried out 246 executions but just one of them was public, according to Amnesty International.

But it gave no breakdown of how many of those executions were for the crime of adultery.

It comes as Foreign Secretary Liz Truss faces mounting pressure to confirm if she will delegate securing Nazanin Zhaghari-Ratcliffe's release from Iran to a junior minister.

Shadow Foreign Secretary Lisa Nandy has written to Ms Truss insisting she must prove that saving Nazanin and Anoosheh Ashoori, who is also held in Iran, is a "matter of absolute priority" in her new role.

Since becoming Foreign Secretary, Liz Truss has not met the family of Mr Ashoori, but she did meet with Mr Ratcliffe only once he began his hunger strike.

Mr Ashoori was given a 10-year jail sentence for allegedly spying, and has had two brief furloughs before returning to jail. He has been on hunger strike in the past, and so far has served four years.

He was told he lost his bid for release on the same day Nazanin was told she had lost her appeal against a one-year further sentence for alleged propaganda activities against the regime.

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