French President, Mr Nicolas Sarkozy's wife Ms Carla Bruni has been branded as "prostitute" in Iran after she opposed an Iranian court's ruling of awarding death sentence by stoning to a women for adultery, a media report said here.
The former supermodel, who became President, Mr Nicolas Sarkozy's third wife two years ago, has signed a petition calling for the release of Sakineh Mohammadi-Ashtiani, a 43-year-old mother of two who has been facing capital punishment for allegedly cheating on her husband and then helping to kill him.
Kayhan (which means "Universe" in English), the Iranian daily newspaper and a mouthpiece of the country's Islamic regime, has now accused 42-year-old Bruni-Sarkozy of being a hypocrite, Daily Mail reported.
An editorial in the Iranian paper points to her chequered love life, which has included numerous relationships with high-profile celebrities. Entitled "French prostitutes join the human rights protest", the article singles out Bruni-Sarkozy and Isabelle Adjani, the French actor and friend of the First Lady who is also calling for Sakineh's release, the British daily said.
Kayhan aims to "defend the ideology of the Islamic Revolution" and is directly under the supervision of President, Mr Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's government.
Iranian state television also attacked Bruni-Sarkozy for her support for Sakineh, saying she was using it to try and justify her own immorality, the report said.
Last week, the France's first lady said: "I just can't see what good could come out of this macabre ceremony, whatever the judicial reasons put forward to justify it."
Addressing Sakineh in an open letter, Ms Bruni wrote: "Why shed your blood and deprive your children of their mother? Because you have lived, because you have loved, because you're a woman, and because you're an Iranian? Everything within me refuses to accept this."