ATTRACTIVE Muslim teenager Katya Koren was stoned to death under 'Sharia law' after taking part in a beauty contest in Ukraine.

The 19-year-old was found dead in a village in the Crimea region near her home.

Friends said she liked wearing fashionable clothes and had come seventh in a beauty contest.

Police are now investigating claims that three youths killed her before claiming her death was justified under Islamic law.

One of the three, named as Bihal Gaziev, told police that she had “violated the laws of Sharia”.

Gaziev, 16, who is now under arrest, allegedly added that he had no regrets about Katya being killed.

She was found murdered in a village near where she had lived in the Crimea region of Ukraine.

The majority of Muslims in Ukraine are ethnic Crimean Tatars and live in the Crimean peninsula on the northern coast of the Black Sea.

Different groups in the Muslim faith believe death by stoning is a punishment that can be carried out on adulterers.

Others take the view that it is not an Islamic law.

Last year an Iranian woman’s sentence of execution by stoning for alleged adultery provoked a worldwide outcry.

Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, was sentenced to death by stoning for adultery after suffering years of abuse at the hands of her drug addict husband.

Miss Ashtiani's lawyer said she was allegedly beaten and sold for sex by opium-addict Ebrahim Ghaderzade, who she is accused of killing.

She was jailed for ten years for murder and sentenced to death for adultery. She was also convicted of having illicit relations for which she received 99 lashes.

The Iranian authorities eventually suspended the stoning after an outcry from the international community.

The European Union has called the sentence 'barbaric', the Vatican pleaded for clemency and Brazil, which has tried to intervene in Iran's stand-off with the West over its nuclear programme, offered Miss Ashtiani asylum.

A number of celebrities, including Robert Redford, Robert De Niro and Sting called for her release in an open letter to the Iranian regime, backed by more than 80 actors, artists, musicians, academics and politicians.

When Carla Bruni, the French First Lady, prominently gave her support to the 43-year-old mother-of-two, Iran responded by launching two scathing attacks on Miss Bruni, branding her an adulteress with a 'vastly immoral lifestyle'.

Last week Amnesty international called for 'clarification' on the legal status of a jailed lawyer who represented Miss Ashtiani, Javid Houtan Kiyan.

It issued a statement that read: 'If – as appears - he is held solely for the peaceful exercise of his right to freedom of expression, including in connection with his work as a defence lawyer on behalf of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, he should be released immediately and unconditionally.

'The allegations that he has been tortured while in detention should be investigated immediately and anyone found responsible for abuses brought to justice.'

The Islamic republic says the death penalty is essential to maintain law and order and is applied only after exhaustive judicial proceedings.

Murder, rape, armed robbery, drug trafficking and adultery are all punishable by death in Iran.

In March, Iran hanged a woman convicted of murdering a love rival.

Shahla Jahed, 40, had been a 'temporary wife' of Nasser Mohammad Khani, a former striker for the Iranian national football team.

The execution was thought to be the 146th so far this year. At least 270 people were executed in 2009.





Originally published as Teen stoned to death after beauty contest