An Iranian woman faces the possibility of being stoned to death on accusation of adultery, and human rights groups are pushing for an international campaign to prevent the execution.
Sakineh Mohammadie Ashtiani, a mother of two, who is from the northern Iranian city of Tabriz, was convicted of adultery in 2006. But human rights lawyer Mohammed Mo-stafaei said she was forced to confess after being subjected to 99 lashes, according to CNN. Mr Mostafaei said Ashitani had later retracted her confession.
“Legally it’s all over,” said Mina Ahadi, head of the International Committee Against Stoning and the Death Penalty.
“It’s a done deal. Sakineh can be stoned at any minute,” she said.
Ashitani, if executed, will be buried up to her chest and stones will be hurled at her will be large enough to cause pain but not so large as to kill her immediately, according to an Amnesty International report on the practice.
Mr Mostafaei said her conviction was based not on evidence but on the determination of three out of five judges. She has asked forgiveness from the court but the judges refused to grant clemency. Iran’s Supreme Court upheld the conviction in 2007. Ms Ahadi, who fled Iran in the early 1980s, told CNN that pressure from Amnesty and other organisations and individuals seems the only way to save Ashtiani. “Experience shows (that)... When the pressure gets very high, the Islamic government starts to say something different,” she said. Ms Ahadi noted that Article 74 of the Iranian penal code requires at least four witnesses — four men or three men and two women. —PTI