Iranian Woman Could Be Stoned Soon, Lawyer Warns

(AP)  The lawyer for an Iranian woman sentenced to death by stoning on an adultery conviction said Monday that he and her children are worried the delayed execution could be carried out soon with the end of a moratorium on death sentences for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

In an unusual turn in the case, the lawyer also confirmed that Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani was lashed 99 times last week in a separate punishment meted out because a British newspaper ran a picture of an unveiled woman mistakenly identified as her. Under Iran's clerical rule, women must cover their hair in public.

With the end of Ramadan this week, the mother of two could be executed "any moment," said her lawyer, Javid Houtan Kian.

The sentence was put on hold in July after an international outcry over the brutality of the punishment, and it is now being reviewed by Iran's supreme court.

Ashtiani was convicted in 2006 of having an "illicit relationship" with two men after the murder of her husband the year before and was sentenced at that time to 99 lashes. Later that year, she was also convicted of adultery and sentenced to be stoned, even though she retracted a confession that she says was made under duress.

"The possibility of stoning still exists, any moment," Kian told The Associated Press. "Her stoning sentence was only delayed; it has not been lifted yet."

Italy is among several countries pressing for Iran to show flexibility in the case. The country's foreign minister, Franco Frattini, said the Italian ambassador in Iran met with authorities in Tehran who "confirmed to us that no decision has been made" about the stoning sentence.

"I interpret that in the sense that the stoning, for now, won't take place," Frattini said in an interview on Italian state TV.

After putting the stoning sentence on hold, Iran suddenly announced that the woman had also been brought to trial and convicted of playing a role in her husband's 2005 murder. Her lawyer disputes that, saying no charges against her in the killing have ever been part of her case file.

In early August, Iranian authorities broadcast a purported confession from Ashtiani on state-run television. In it, a woman identified as Ashtiani admits to being an unwitting accomplice in her husband's killing.

Kian says he believes she was tortured into confessing.

In the latest twist, authorities are said to have flogged her for the publication of a photo of a woman without her hair covered in the Times of London newspaper. The woman in the photo was misidentified as Ashtiani.

She was lashed on Thursday, Kian said, citing information from a fellow prisoner who was released last week. Kian has been allowed no direct contact with his client since last month.

"We have no access to Ashtiani, but there is no reason for the released prisoner to lie" about the flogging, he said.

There was no official Iranian confirmation of the new punishment.

The woman's son, 22-year-old Sajjad Qaderzadeh, said he did not know whether the new lashing sentence had been carried out yet, but that he also heard about the sentence from a prisoner who recently left the Tabriz prison where his mother is being held.

"Publishing the photo provided a judge an excuse to sentence my poor mother to 99 lashes on the charge of taking a picture unveiled," Qaderzadeh told the AP.

The Times apologized in its Monday edition but added that the lashing "is simply a pretext."

"The regime's purpose is to make Ms. Ashtiani suffer for an international campaign to save her that has exposed so much iniquity," the newspaper said.

Another lawyer who once represented Ashtiani, Mohammad Mostafaei, said in a news conference in Paris that it was not certain if there really had been a new conviction and sentence over the photograph.

"I have contacted my former colleagues at the court who told me nothing was clear on this situation," he said at the news conference with French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner. "There isn't any punishment for this act in our law."

Kouchner called the stoning sentence "the height of barbarism" and said her case has become a "personal cause" and he was "ready to do anything to save her. If I must go to Tehran to save her, I'll go to Tehran."

Ashtiani's two children remain in Iran and her son is a ticket seller for a bus company in the northern Iranian city of Tabriz. He said he and his younger sister, Farideh, 18, have not seen their mother since early August.

"We have really missed her," he said. "We expect all influential bodies to help to save her."

The Vatican on Sunday raised the possibility of using behind-the-scenes diplomacy to try to save her life as well.

[legacyABQ2]

Persia. Once a great empire, and an advanced nation.

Just look at what religion has done to it.

Barbarians, nothing more, the religious people who, haven been given power, put their ideology into action.

It happens in any religion. All religion.

[askagain]

Iran sounds like a great place to live. Wouldn't it be great if people who find a lot of fault with America chose to live in Iran. That way, they could start bad mouthing Iran instead of America.

[shylove2]

They could learn soemthing from the CIA who usually uses lsd to do this...

[croft777]

How can they say she commited adultery when her husband was dead, and I don't believe that she had an affair with two men, it was more like she was prob. raped, those arab men don't know how to control themselves. They would lie just to get a thrill from the stoning, sick animals.

[croft777]

These people wanting to stone her are prime evil and of SATAN! I will tell all of you muslims who believe in this law of stoning the same thing JESUS told the scribes and Pharisees when they brought to Jesus a women caught in the act of adultery. They said to Jesus, "Teacher, this woman was caught in adultery, in the very act.Now Moses, in the law, commanded us that such should be stoned. But what do You say?"
This they said, testing Him, that they might have something of which to accuse Him. But JESUS stooped down and wrote on the ground with his finger, as though He did not hear. So when they continued asking Him, He raised himself up and said to them, "HE WHO IS WITHOUT SIN AMONG YOU, LET HIM THROW A STONE AT HER FIRST." And again He stooped down and wrote on the ground. Then those who heard it, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one, begining with the oldest even to the last. And Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst. When Jesus had raised Himself up and saw no one but the woman, He said to her, "Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?" She said, "No one, Lord." And Jesus said to her, "Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more."

HE WHO IS WITHOUT SIN AMONG YOU, LET HIM THROW A STONE AT HER FIRST.

Everyone sins, every single person who has ever lived on this earth has sinned,even mohammad sinned. except for JESUS.

You have already sinned by beating her, so if you stone her, LET IT BE KNOWN GOD WILL DESTROY YOU. FOR EVIL SHALL NOT CONQUER, IT WILL BE BANISHED FOR ETERNITY.

[jackpenn]

The Muslim's want to have people believe they are a peaceful, loving religion, but yet they would stone a woman to death for allegedly committing adultry. In America, if a woman or a man commits adultry it is not even considered a crime. Now, what happens to a Muslim woman living in America, who commits adultry? Do the Muslim's take her in a back alley, and stone her to death? How rediculous.

[jackpenn]

Where is my comment? Why are you not putting them up?

[tiredofthebs]

by oblomov1 September 6, 2010 2:17 PM EDT
One more example of the heinous crimes committed by Muslims in the name of Islam's brutal, inhuman Sharia law. These people have no respect for human life or dignity. They are no different than the Nazis, and just as brutal. Any infraction, no matter how small, is punishable ......
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You mean like the Spanish Inquisition where the CATHOLIC CHURCH did the same thing?! Practically every religion has performed atrocities. If you live in a glass house, don't throw stones.

[ffoulkes-2009]

Oh, you mean that Inquisition that took place over 500 years ago? Some people grow out of bad behavior, whilst others embrace it.

[tjh14]

You women are such hypocrites. If this case involved a man, one of 2 things would happen: 1)We wouldn't hear peep out of you, or 2) You would be lined up on female oriented TV shows like Oprah, saying how the guy deserved to be stoned to death because he couldn't keep it in his pants. Some of you would volunteer to throw the rocks. If you ever have witnessed the venom hurled towards some adulterous male guest dumb enough to go on one of those women's shows, you know exactly what I mean.

[democracy5]

Go back to your cave.

[democracy5]

Go back to your cave.

[hc88]

by sing-with-rapture September 6, 2010 4:01 PM EDT
This is America boy,the world of the lying,swindling,thugs,rapist,serial killers,pedophiles,and financial terrorists.Sooner you accept the reality the better it will be.
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Those are the minority, criminals that hide amongst everyday decent people, this stoning issue represents the majority of the thinking in the middle east, you should move to the middle east to sing your song.