Iran in tit-for-tat spat with Norway

Tehran - Iran has summoned the Norwegian ambassador to Tehran to protest at what it said was Oslo's interference in human rights issues, state television reported on Monday.

"The summons was made because of meddling and selective approaches of Norway," the broadcaster's website quoted a foreign ministry statement as saying.

It said the ministry had told ambassador Roald Nass on Sunday that it considered that "propaganda with political motives about the punishment of criminals is unacceptable."

The move was seen as a tit-for-tat reaction to Norway's summoning of the Iranian ambassador to Oslo in January in protest at the execution of a 27-year-old woman in Tehran for murder.

Raheleh Zamani, a mother of two young children, had been found guilty of beating her husband to death with an iron bar after discovering he was having an affair with another woman. She then chopped up the body and hid the pieces in several containers.

Iran currently makes more use of the death penalty than any other country apart from China. Capital offences in the Islamic republic include murder, rape, armed robbery, serious drug trafficking and adultery.

Human rights groups have accused Iran of excessive use of the death penalty, but the authorities say capital punishment is an effective deterrent that is used only after an exhaustive judicial process.

In July, Oslo summoned the Iranian ambassador to protest against the stoning to death of a man convicted of adultery in northwestern Iran.

Under Iran's Islamic law, adultery is still theoretically punishable by stoning although in late 2002 judiciary head Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahrudi had issued a directive suspending the practice. - AFP