Iran remains a patriarchal state which, when adultery occurs, stones the woman, givin the man a much lesser penalty. Stoning itself is a barbaric punishment. Sakineh Mohammadiah Ashtiani has faced the prospect of stoning, which, through the protests of the international community, has been stopped. However, she still faces the prospect of being executed by hanging for adultery. She may be executed today unless international protests stop that too.
Fears that alleged adulterer’s execution by hanging ‘is imminent’
Martin Fletcher and Roland Watson, Times Online, November 02, 2010
https://tinyurl.com/2d5l2es
SUPPORTERS of the Iranian woman sentenced to death by stoning for alleged adultery warned yesterday that her execution may be imminent.
The International Committee against Executions (ICAE) said that it had learnt that Tehran had authorised the prison where Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani is being held to carry out her execution.
“The probability of Sakineh’s imminent execution is now very high,” ICAE said in a statement. Mina Ahadi, its co-ordinator, said that she believed Ms Ashtiani would be hanged because of international condemnation of the stoning sentence.
Last night the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and senior British MPs repeated their calls for Ms Ashtiani to be spared.
A report on the Iranian University Students News website restated the charges against Ms Ashtiani of adultery and complicity in her husband’s murder, and accused the western media of taking up her case without knowing the facts.
- Iran lashes West over stoning outrage The Australian, 11 hours ago
- Iran stoning woman execution ‘delayed’ Adelaide Now, 18 hours ago
- Britain, US protest execution The Australian, 1 day ago
- Iranian woman ‘to be stoned to death soon’ Adelaide Now, 1 day ago
- Germans seized over stoning sentence Adelaide Now, 11 Oct 2010
It quoted Iran’s official human rights body as saying that it had investigated the case and that “sadly, according to the documents and evidence, the accusations against [her] have been proven”.
The report appeared to pre-judge the outcome of a judicial review of Ms Ashtiani’s case by Iran’s Supreme Court.
Some analysts suggested that the regime might be testing the waters to see whether the international campaign to save her reacts.
Ms Ashtiani, 43, has already spent five years in prison in the city of Tabriz, and received 99 lashes.
After her stoning sentence caused an international uproar in July the regime put her on television to make a “confession” that her supporters insist was forced. Since then she has been denied any contact with the outside world.
On October 10 her son, Sajad Ghaderzade, 22, and her Tabriz lawyer, Javid Houtan Kian, were arrested with two German journalists after giving interviews to the western media.
ICAE claimed last week that the two Iranian men had been tortured since their arrest. According to yesterday’s (Monday) website report, Mr Ghaderzade has now denounced Mr Kian, accusing him of using his mother’s plight to raise his profile so he could win asylum abroad.
Ms Ahadi said she was “110 per cent sure he’s been severely tortured to make these statements”.
Yvette Cooper, the shadow foreign secretary, said: “This process is regarded by the Iranian Government as justice. But it is completely inhuman.”
A spokesman for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office said: “For Iran to execute her would be an appalling act.”
The Times
French supporters fear Iranian woman to be stoned Wednesday
(AFP) – Nov. 2, 2010
https://tinyurl.com/23elsan
PARIS — French human rights activists protesting to demand the freedom of a Iranian mother who was convicted of adultery say they fear she could be executed as early as Wednesday.
“Sakineh Mohammadi-Ashtiani could be threatened with execution tomorrow,” said a statement Tuesday from the French magazine “La Regle du Jeu”, which is run by Paris’ best known philosopher, Bernard-Henri Levy.
A few dozen of Ashtiani’s supporters held a demonstration outside the Iranian embassy Tuesday, to protest what they see as Tehran’s unfair trial and inhumane punishment of the 43-year-old mother-of-two.
“A letter from the Tehran supreme court has been sent to the sentence application department at Tabriz prison, authorising Sakineh’s rapid execution,” the group alleged.
“Since death sentences are carried out on Wednesdays we can only be terribly worried for Sakineh today,” it said. Activists said they had heard news of the letter from the international committee to save Sakineh, based in Berlin.
Ashtiani was sentenced to death by two courts in the northwestern city of Tabriz in separate trials in 2006.
The first sentence, death by hanging for her involvement in the murder of her husband, was commuted to a 10-year jail term by an appeals court in 2007.
But the second, death by stoning, was on a charge of adultery levelled over several relationships, notably with the man convicted of her husband’s murder, and was upheld by another appeals court the same year.
Since July, Iranian officials have said the stoning has been postponed in the face of an international outcry that has seen strong representations by the French and Italian governments as well as the Vatican.
But a foreign ministry spokesman told reporters on September 28: “The judicial process has not finished and the final judgement will be announced after the end of the process.”
France’s minister for European Affairs, Pierre Lellouche, said he hoped that Iran would commute the sentences and added that France was doing everything it can diplomatically.
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Press Release 84: The Islamic regime of Iran plans to execute Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani immediately
1 November 2010, https://stopstonningnow.com/wpress/4194
The Islamic regime of Iran plans to execute Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani immediately
According to news received by the International Committee against Stoning and International Committee against Execution on 1 November 2010, the authorities in Tehran have given the go ahead to Tabriz prison for the execution of Iran stoning case Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani. It has been reported that she is to be executed this Wednesday 3 November.
We had previously reported that the casefile regarding the murder case of Ms Ashtiani’s husband had been seized from her lawyer’s office, Houtan Kian, and found missing from the prosecutor’s Oskoo branch office so as to stitch Ms Ashtiani up with trumped up murder charges. Ms Ashtiani’s son, Sajjad Ghaderzadeh, and her lawyer, Houtan Kian, have warned of the regime’s plan to do so on many occasions. With the arrest of Ms Ashtiani’s son and lawyer on 10 October and her not having had any visitation rights since 11 August and after fabricating a new case against her, the “Human Rights Commission” of the regime has announced that: ‘according to the existing evidence, her guilt has been confirmed.’ In fact, the regime has created a new scenario in order to expedite her execution.
The International Committees against Stoning and Execution call on international bodies and the people of the world to come out in full force against the state-sponsored murder of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani. Ms Ashtiani, Sajjad Ghaderzadeh, Houtan Kian and the two German journalists must be immediately and unconditionally released.
International Committee against Execution
International Committee against Stoning
Email: [email protected]
Tel: 0049 (0) 1775692413