Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani
Photo: AP
Report: Iran to commute Ashtiani's sentence
Prosecutor says case of woman charged with murdering her husband and sentenced to death by stoning is being re-examined. 'Anything is possible'
Iran's chief prosecutor told Iran's
Fars news agency Sunday that it was possible that the death by stoning which Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani was condemned to over charges of adultery would be cancelled. And yet, he did not address the possibility that she would be executed by hanging.
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According to the senior prosecutor, the case was being re-examined and "anything is possible". He added that the authorities allowed Ashtiani to be interviewed by the foreign media on Saturday and said: "We aren't concerned."
Ashtiani was imprisoned in 2006 after being convicted of the murder of her husband and having sexual relations with two strange men, something which is forbidden in Iran and considered adultery. The punishment for adultery in the Islamic Republic is stoning.
As a result of an international struggle against the cruel death penalty, the Iranians announced a few months ago that they would reexamine the case. It would seem from the prosecutor's announcement that the international pressure has affected the case.
In an interview given yesterday to the foreign press, Ashtiani said that she would sue the two German journalists who were arrested in Iran two months ago and indicted for espionage charges.
Ashtiani and her son interviewed by foreign press (Photo:Reuters)
According to Ashtiani the two interviewed her son against Iranian law and caused her a great deal of embarrassment. Ashtiani also refuted claims in the western media that her confession to the charges ascribed to her was taken from her under duress. She also criticized her lawyers for politicizing her trial.
At first Iranian authorities claimed that the two journalists entered the country on a tourist visa but continued their work as journalists against the law.
State prosecutor Malek Ajdar Sharifi stated that since their interrogation it has been revealed that the two journalists entered the country as tourists, conducted an interview with Ashtiani's son, but didn't present any credentials that would prove that they were journalists.
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