Iran woman's stoning suspended after global outcry

By ROBIN POMEROY | REUTERS

TEHRAN: Iranian authorities have suspended the execution by stoning of a woman convicted of adultery, the Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday, after weeks of condemnation from around the world.

"The verdict regarding the extramarital affairs has stopped and it's being reviewed," Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast told Iran's state-run English-language Press TV.

The statement came a day after European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso called the stoning sentence against Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani "barbaric beyond words", the latest in a string of criticisms by foreign powers.

She was convicted of adultery — a capital crime in the Islamic Republic — in 2006. She also has been charged with involvement in her husband's murder.

In a live telephone interview, Mehmanparast said the murder charge was "being investigated for the final verdict to be issued".

Adultery is the only crime which carries the penalty of death by stoning under the Islamic law which Iran adopted after the 1979 revolution, a lawyer told Reuters.

The death penalty for murder in Iran is by hanging. The lawyer said Ashtiani might receive 15 years' jail if convicted of being an accomplice to murder.

At no point in the interview, which was in the Farsi language but was dubbed over by a simultaneous translation into English, did Mehmanparast mention "stoning", referring merely to Ashtiani's "death sentence".

"We think that this is a very normal case," he said. "This dossier looks likes many other dossiers that exist in other countries."

Human rights campaigners, intellectuals and politicians in Europe, including French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife Carla Bruni, have taken up Ashtiani's cause.

In Washington, US State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley told a briefing on Wednesday: "Stoning is a barbaric and abhorrent act. We have joined with many, many voices around the world in condemning this prospective action by Iran. But ultimately this is in the hand of Iranian authorities".

Karim Lahidji, Paris-based president of the Iranian League for the Defense of Human Rights, told France 24 television: "We are very happy with the result of this campaign ... even though, to this day, no decision has been made in a court.

"As long as she is not freed, we really don't know if this case is definitely closed."

Mehmanparast blamed the United States for stirring the furor to hurt Iran's international image as it faces sanctions aimed at curbing its nuclear program.

"It looks like they are playing a political game," he said.

"This lady's case that is being followed ... is in direct connection and relation with the soft war that is being waged against Iran and the aim is to create a rift in relations between Iran, Brazil and Turkey."

Both Brazil and Turkey have worked diplomatically to try to solve the impasse over the nuclear program which Iran says is entirely peaceful but which the United States and European countries suspect is aimed at making a bomb.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said Iran may return to talks with global powers after the holy month of Ramadan. Human rights campaigners had said they feared Ashtiani's execution could be carried out after Ramadan.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva offered asylum to Ashtiani, prompting an embarrassing public rejection of his offer by Iran which said he was a "humane and sensitive character" but was not in possession of all the facts.

Comments

AHMAD RAFICK

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Who is Barosso to say that the stoning of a woman who has committed adultery is barbaric? Does he want to say that the SHARIA is a law of barbaric people?In the west they have the habit of changing wives among themselves in parties, after they are drunk and behave like pigs.For Barosso and friends like Sarko,
this way of life is freedom and modern way of living. This is the result of AIDS.Allah has sent His curse on them.Can a normal human being accept to have sex and marry his or her fellow being.The west and their church accept this. Shame on Barosso and Sarko.

MAHA KHALEELALLAH

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if the sentence is barbaric then what is the woman's act of killing her husband called. europe never leaves an opportunity to against islam and at the drop of a hat speaks againt iran wich is probably the only country which has the audacity to follow shariah practically. Europe has no right to meddle with the divine shariah laws. let them go nd show their crocodile tears to their own women who r raped nd murdered.

DAN TAYLOR

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I am not a swinger myself, but who are you to say that the rights of a person to freely have sexual relations with whomever they choose is "pig like." This is by no means a habit of most people but only a select few who share this way of life and it is their right to express those feelings if they please. You also go on to say that, "this is the result of AIDS." How can this action of "swinging" be a result of an acquired immune deficiency syndrome, that just makes no sense whatsoever. Are you aware that your "god" allah does not curse people with Diseases but can only curse with la'nat or the removal of his blessings. Yes, normal people do accept to have sex and marry his or her fellow being, its what the majority of Americans and the world do. Not everyone is a swinger but it is their right to do so if they choose. Finally there is no supporting evidence to your accusation that, "The west and their church accept this." There is no church to my knowledge that accepts swinging as an allowable action. We as Americans were not founded on the basis of religion, but on the basis of Freedom.

ANDREW IN NY

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@Ahmad Rafick. Umm, the west has the lowest Aids rate of any countries. I don't know what tv shows your watching thAt tells you about these wife swaps.... Seems like you have been watching too much porn.

DR.ISRARUL HAQUE

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The west entire sympathies are with the criminals the murderers the adulturous
not with the community whose peace is jeopordaized due to these anti social elements what a novel way to serve the humanity
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