Stoning Execution of Iranian Woman Delayed

Iran has not yet executed a woman who is imprisoned and awaiting death by stoning.

Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, a 43-year-old widow and mother of two convicted of adultery, was also charged for allegedly conspiring in the death of her husband, but said she was subsequently acquitted of the murder.

“The man who actually killed my husband was identified and imprisoned, but he is not sentenced to death,” she observed in a conversation with The Guardian in August.

So far, a worldwide campaign to appeal to the Iranian government not to execute her as sentenced on November 3 has apparently been successful, at least temporarily.

British Foreign Minister William Hague, who called the sentence “barbaric,” warned in a news conference that the execution would “damage Iran in the eyes of the world. It will be much better not to proceed with it.”

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner had also appealed to his counterpart, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, who Koucher said told him “a verdict in the case… had not been reached by the Iranian legal authorities and that the information on her alleged execution did not correspond to reality.”

“She is currently enjoying full health and is at the Tabriz Prison,” reported the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) on Wednesday, which quoted the head of the province judiciary, Hojatoleslam Malek Azhdar Sharif. “Her case is being processed by the relevant judicial authorities of the province and is going through the due process,” he said.

After a confession obtained under torture, Ashtiani was lashed 99 times in the presence of her 17-year-old son. Her torturous prison term continued for four years, and she was subsequently sentenced to death by stoning.

Her son, Ghaderzadeh, and one of her lawyers, Hootan Kian, were both arrested last month and jailed. So were two German journalists who tried to interview them, according to Mina Ahadi, spokeswoman for the International Committee against Stoning. Ashtiani’s other former lawyer, Mohammad Mostafaei, fled Iran and taken refuge in Turkey, where he is being protected by diplomats after he reported that Iranian authorities tried to arrest him without cause.

According to CNN, the government has refused to allow Ghaderzadeh and Kian, to receive a lawyer, claiming that they don’t need one.