Classified records have revealed Iran has sentenced 51 people to death by stoning for adultery with the victims set to have rocks hurled at their heads while trapped in sand.

Leaked documents smuggled from inside the country’s prisons say 23 women and 28 men as young as 25 await their brutal executions.

Those sentenced to death by stoning have previously been wrapped and bound in a white sheet.

Victims in the past have been buried up to their neck or waist in the ground before stones were hurled at them.

In the past, it has sometimes taken several hours for the victim to die.

The records, obtained by The Sun Online from sources of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), include the names, ages, sentencing body, and location of imprisonment of the accused.

It is the first time an official list of individuals sentenced to stoning by the Iranian Judiciary has been acquired from within the regime.

Death by stoning came into force in Iran after the 1979 revolution, and despite the judiciary placing a moratorium on the vile practice in 2002, many are still condemned to the wicked punishment.

Under Iranian laws, rape, adultery, armed robbery, and murder are among crimes that can lead to the death penalty – which law enforcers in the country have long argued is essential for maintaining public security.

Iran’s Penal Code even has specific instructions for how the execution should be carried out, stating: “The size of the stone used in stoning shall not be too large to kill the convict by one or two throws and at the same time shall not be too small to be called a stone.”

Victims first have their hands bound before being covered in a sheet, which is tied in several places including around the neck, waist, and ankles.

They are then buried in a ditch filled with sand – with women having just their shoulders and head left above the ground, while men are exposed from the waist up.