Iran woman's stoning suspended after global outcry
Published: Sep 9, 2010 00:03 Updated: Sep 9, 2010 00:03
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
Sep 9, 2010 18:30
Report abusethis 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
Sep 10, 2010 04:33
Report abuseDAN TAYLOR
Sep 10, 2010 16:15
Report abuseANDREW IN NY
Sep 10, 2010 16:25
Report abuseDR.ISRARUL HAQUE
Sep 10, 2010 19:42
Report abusenot with the community whose peace is jeopordaized due to these anti social elements what a novel way to serve the humanity