An Iranian court has delayed the final verdict of a 43-year-old woman sentenced to death by stoning, a human rights group said Sunday, 2 days after the country announced she will not be executed during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
The International Committee Against Stoning did not say how it got its information on the postponement of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani's final verdict, which had previously been scheduled to come down last Thursday.
The group said in a statement that the final verdict in Ashtiani's case is now expected on August 21, the date of her lawyer's next court appearance.
Iranian state TV broadcast a program about Ashtiani on Friday in which it said that she will not be executed during Ramadan, which began last week, the International Committee Against Stoning said Sunday.
The mother of 2 faces a death sentence for adultery. Last month, Iran's top human rights official said the Islamic regime is reviewing her sentence.
The International Committee against Stoning said Sunday that it and Ashtiani's family are "extremely concerned" about her fate. The group said that Iran has executed 73 people in recent days, including some on Friday.
In an interview with Iranian state-run TV last week, Ashtiani denounced her lawyer and said she knew about a plot to kill her husband, but human rights groups alleged that the statements were coerced.
"Televised 'confessions' have repeatedly been used by the authorities to incriminate individuals in custody," Amnesty International said Thursday, a day after Ashtiani's interview ran on state-run TV. "Many have later retracted these 'confessions,' stating that they were coerced to make them, sometimes under torture or other ill-treatment.
One of the condemned woman's lawyers, Mohammad Mostafaei, said his client made those comments "to save her life" and noted that the death sentence for murder charges related to her husband's death had been commuted.
Brazil has offered to give asylum to Ashtiani but Iran has rejected the proposal.
In an interview with the state-owned Agencia Brasil news outlet, however, Iranian Ambassador Mohsen Shaterzadeh said Brazil had not made a formal offer to the Iranian government for asylum.
But Agencia Brasil said Brazil's foreign minister, Celso Amorim, had reiterated on Wednesday the government's offer to have Ashtiani sent to the South American nation.
"I think there is no need to create some trouble for President Lula (Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva) and to take her to Brazil," Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told the country's state-run Press TV in an interview. "We are keen to export our technology to Brazil rather than such people."
Ahmadinejad said he had spoken with the head of the judiciary "and the judiciary does not also agree with such a thing."
Source: CNN, August 16, 2010
Nobel laureates seek action on Iran execution
Public figures including Nobel laureates and Hollywood stars published a letter of support Monday for Iranian mother-of-two Sakineh Mohammadi-Ashtiani who is facing execution for adultery.
"Urgent intervention is necessary to prevent an execution that observers believe is imminent," said a text published in France's Liberation newspaper, signed by dignitaries including Nobel Laureates Wole Soyinka and Jody Williams.
Other names included Czech author Milan Kundera, pop star and anti-poverty campaigner Bob Geldof and actresses Juliette Binoche and Mia Farrow.
They called for "the renunciation of any kind of execution, freedom without delay and recognition of her innocence," after Mohammadi-Ashtiani, 43, last week made an apparently coerced televised confession.
A woman dressed in a face-covering chador and said to be Mohammadi-Ashtiani confessed on Iranian television to being an accomplice in her husband's murder in 2006. She was previously found guilty of adultery.
Her lawyer, Javid Kian, said Iranian authorities have prevented him from seeing his client, and that he expected the Supreme Court to make its final ruling in the next few days on whether her execution will go ahead.
On July 11, state news agency IRNA reported that Iran's judiciary chief Sadeq Larijani temporarily halted the execution, after the case attracted international condemnation.
Cities Participating in 100 Cities of the World Against Stoning on AUGUST 28
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| Stoning in Iran |
The International Campaign to Save Sakineh Ashtiani from stoning has brought this savage, criminal punishment to the attention of the world. Today Sakineh's name is familiar to millions of people. Hundreds of thousands have expressed their abhorrence of stoning through, among other things, signing petitions and taking part in protest actions worldwide. This millions strong movement must be organized. It must take its protest to the streets!
To that end we call on citizens of the world to mark August 28, 2010 the day of protest action by 100 CITIES OF THE WORLD AGAINST STONING. We call on you, civilized people of the world, to actively show your vehement opposition to stoning as a pre-medieval form of savagery. Organize, or participate in, protest rallies everywhere. Condemn the Islamist regime in Iran as the cruelest regime of its kind that stones people to death. It has, during the 31 years of its existence, stoned at least 109 people, predominantly women, and currently has 25 more people sitting on stoning death row. These barbaric, serial killings must be stopped!
We call especially on all anti-stoning campaigners, as well as all groups and organizations particularly involved in the on-going international campaign to save Sakineh, to actively mobilize, with everything in their power, for a strong 100 CITIES OF THE WORLD AGAINST STONING action. We request you all to contact us through our website addresses below in order to coordinate your efforts and organize more effectively. We shall soon announce the list of names of the cities willing and prepared to organize an action.
Further, we request all trade unions and other workers’ organization, women’s organizations, Amnesty International and all progressive organizations to join us in this campaign aimed at forcing back the Islamist regime. Please forward this call to your membership and mobilize them for a forceful, global 100 CITIES OF THE WORLD AGAINST STONING.
We call on all local councils, city governments and MPs around the world to actively join this global, citizens’ campaign, issue statements and pass resolutions condemning the barbaric regime of stoning in Iran.
We request the world media to help us in disseminating the news of the advance of 100 CITIES OF THE WORLD AGAINST STONING campaign.
We also call on all Iranian individuals living abroad, all Iranian opposition organizations, and all the Farsi language media to consider 100 CITIES OF THE WORLD AGAINST STONING their own protest action against the regime of stoning in Iran. We request them to add to its force as well as expand through contributing their creative ideas.
International Committee Against Stoning (http://stopstonningnow.com)
Iran Solidarity (http://www.iransolidarity.org.uk)
Mission Free Iran (http://missionfreeiran.org)
International Committee Against Execution (http://notonemoreexecution.org)
Source: Planet-Iran, August 17, 2010
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