Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani to face death by stoning or hanging: semi-official ISNA news agency

Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani brought
out in front of cameras in December 2010
for an alleged confession.

Authorities in Iran said Sunday they are again moving ahead with plans to execute a woman sentenced to death by stoning on an adultery conviction in a case that sparked an international outcry, but are considering whether to carry out the punishment by hanging instead.

Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani is already behind bars, serving a 10-year sentence on a separate conviction in the murder of her husband. Amid the international outrage her case generated, Iran in July 2010 suspended plans to carry out her death sentence on the adultery conviction.

On Sunday, a senior judiciary official said experts were studying whether the punishment of stoning could be changed to hanging.

"There is no haste. ... We are waiting to see whether we can carry out the execution of a person sentenced to stoning by hanging or not," said Malek Ajdar Sharifi, the head of justice department of East Azerbaijan province, where Ashtiani is jailed.

"As soon as the result (of the investigation) is obtained, we will carry out the sentence," he said, according to the semi-official ISNA news agency.

The charge of a married woman having an illicit relationship requires a punishment of stoning, he said.

He said judiciary chief Ayatollah Sadeq Larijani ordered a halt to stoning in order to allow Islamic experts to investigate whether the punishment can be altered in Ashtiani's case.

Ashtiani was convicted of adultery in 2006 after the murder of her husband.

She was later convicted of being an accessory to her husband's murder and sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Source: IranPressNews, December 25, 2011

Iran says woman’s stoning case might change to hanging

TEHRAN: An Iranian woman sentenced to be stoned to death for adultery could be hanged instead, the students news agency ISNA reported.

A court sentenced Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani to be stoned in 2006 but the sentence was suspended last year after an international outcry. However, under a judicial review being carried out she still could be hanged.

“There is no rush ... our Islamic experts are reviewing Ashtiani’s sentence to see whether we can carry out the execution of a person sentenced to stoning by hanging,” said Malek Ajdar Sharifi, head of judiciary in the East Azerbaijan province.

Ashtiani’s husband was murdered in 2005, after which an Iranian court convicted the mother of two of having an “illicit relationship” with two men. For this, she was given a stoning sentence in 2006.

Amnesty International says she received 99 lashes as her sentence but she was subsequently convicted of “adultery while being married,” which the human rights group says she denied.

Ashtiani, arrested in 2006, is already serving 10 years for being an accessory to her husband’s murder in a prison in the East Azerbaijan.

A local judiciary official said last year that the stoning of Ashtiani had been suspended due to “humanitarian reservations,” but did not rule out possibility of her execution.

“The sentence of Ashtiani will be carried out as soon as our experts announce their view,” the official said.

Under Islamic law in force in Iran since the 1979 revolution, adultery may be punished by death by stoning and crimes such as murder, rape, armed robbery, apostasy and drug trafficking are all punishable by hanging.

The European Union called Ashtiani’s stoning sentence “barbaric.” The Vatican pleaded for clemency and Brazil offered her asylum. The case further strained Tehran’s relations with the West, already at odds over Iran’s disputed nuclear program.

Two reporters for German newspaper Bild a.m. Sonntag were detained in Iran in October last year when they were interviewing Ashtiani’s son without official permission, highlighting the sensitivity of the case. The two were released in February.

Iranian authorities dismiss allegations of rights abuses, saying they are following Islamic law.

Mohammad Javad Larijani, secretary-general of the Iranian High Council for Human Rights, argued in December that stoning should not be classified as a method of execution but rather a method of punishment which is actually more “lenient” because half of the people survive, the UN quoted him as saying.

Source: ArabNews, December 26, 2011

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