Sudan: 2 women hanged for stoning child to death

May 13, 2011: federal prison authorities in Sudan executed two young women by hanging for killing a child by stoning in the Al-Azhari area of Khartoum. 

The women allegedly lured the child in the Mayo neighbourhood to a building in Al-Azhari where they stoned him to death, in revenge over a dispute with the child's mother. 

They were sentenced to death by the Hay al-Nasr criminal court under article 130 of the penal code.

Source: BBC, May 13, 2011

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Taliban insurgents stone a couple to death for alleged adultery in northern Afghanistan

Video footage shows Siddqa, 25, covered
completely by a blue burkha, buried up to her
waist in the ground as a crowd of people watches on

Horrific video footage has emerged of Taliban insurgents stoning a couple to death for alleged adultery in northern Afghanistan.

Hundreds of villagers can be seen on the video standing around as 19-year-old Siddqa, is buried up to her waist in a hole in the ground.

Two mullahs pass sentence before the crowd begins to throw rocks at her head and body as she desperately tries to crawl free.

After the 25-year-old collapsed to the ground, covered in blood, miraculously still alive, a Taliban fighter then shot her three times.

Her alleged lover, Khayyam, is then marched in front of the crowd with his hands tied behind his back.

He was blindfolded and crouched down close to the ground as he tried to protect his body from the stones.

But he is battered to the floor by a barrage of rocks, before falling silent.

The stoning took place in the district of Dashte Archi, in Kunduz, last August.

Siddqa had run away after being sold into an arranged marriage for $9,000. She eventually ran off with her older lover.

The area remains under Taliban control, but regional police have said those behind the stoning will be charged.

Police chief General Daoud Daoud told the BBC: 'Special police investigators will be sent there, we will find them and they will be brought to justice.'

Most of the video has not been shown because it was too graphic.

The couple are believed to have eloped to Pakistan, but were lured back with the false promise that they would not be harmed.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid defended the stoning.

He told the BBC: 'Anyone who knows about Islam knows that stoning is in the Koran, and that it is Islamic law.

'There are people who call it inhuman - but in doing so they insult the Prophet. They want to bring foreign thinking to this country.'

Source: Mail Online, January 27, 2011


Video of the execution (Warning: graphic content)



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Two Iranian men to be stoned to death over gay sex

Two young men who filmed themselves having sex with a 17-year-old have been sentenced to death by stoning in Iran.

The film was discovered on the mobile phones of Ayub and Mosleh, 20 and 21 years old, by agents of the Iranian regime in the Kurdistan city of Piranshahr in northwest Iran. It has been claimed that the video included them having sex with a third, 17-year-old who told religious police that the pair raped him in exchange for sparing his own life.

The pair’s full names have not been released.

Pictures of President Ahmadinejad and a headshot of Supreme Leader Khamenei pasted over a donkey were allegedly incorporated into the film.

Reports say that the young men’s stoning was immediately ordered for this Friday “to instill fear in the people of Iran”.

News of the sentence originates from a Kurdish newspaper and has been distributed by the International Committee Against Stoning, which launched the worldwide campaign against the stoning of Sakineh Ashtiani for adultery.

It has since been confirmed by other sources.

Iranian LGBT activists and human rights organisations have reported a number of other death sentences for homosexuality in the past two years. However the Iranian government maintains that “most of these individuals have been charged for forcible sodomy or rape”.

The original newspaper report claimed that the boys raped another.

Soheila Vahdati, an independent human rights defender for Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and the Iranian Queer Organisation based in San Francisco, said: “They don’t differentiate between rape and homosexual acts. As well, there is a culture of shame. The families won’t defend their loved ones from this brutal punishment.”

“We are very concerned even though we haven’t got all the details,” she added. “We’ll try to save their lives but unfortunately Iran has quickly executed people in the past.”

Judges order execution by stoning under a 1983 law detailing offences proscribed by God, and then under the general Islamic penal code. Some senior Shia clerics have spoken out against stoning.

The International Committee Against Stoning has urged “the young people of Piranshahr to hasten to the aid of Ayub and Mosleh and declare that they will not permit this tragedy to occur”.

The Association of British Muslims, alongside an international coalition of Muslim organisations, has condemned the sentence and says it does not see anything in the Koran to justify such punishment.

The group said: “Allah says in the Holy Qur’an, ‘…if anyone slays a human being unless it be [in punishment] for murder or for spreading corruption on earth – it shall be as though he had slain all mankind; whereas, if anyone saves a life, it shall be as though he had saved the lives of all mankind…’”

Last month Human Rights Watch published a large scale report on the repression of LGBT in Iran. It said that those charged with same-sex offences stand little chance of receiving a fair trial.

There are few reliable statistics on the frequency with which stonings take place in Iran. Recent years have seen a rising number of cases reported. Some members of parliament are reportedly hoping that the Supreme Leader will pass a fatwa against stoning.

Source: Pink News, January 18, 2011

British MEP Michael Cashman says he’s working to stop Iranian gay executions

Gay Labour MEP Michael Cashman has said he is working to stop the planned executions of two young men for alleged homosexuality offences.

The two men, named only as Ayub, 21, and Mosleh, 20, were arrested by agents of the Iranian regime in the Kurdistan city of Piranshahr in northwest Iran after mobile phone footage was discovered of them having sex.

It has been claimed that the video included them having sex with a 17-year-old who told religious police that the pair raped him in exchange for sparing his own life.

Homosexuality is illegal in Iran.

Mr Cashman tweeted yesterday: “Working to stop the execution of Ayoub and Mosleh in Iran.”

PinkNews.co.uk understands he has alerted EU Foreign Minister Cathy Ashton about the men’s plight, while MPs Chris Bryant and Caroline Lucas have written to the Foreign Secretary to highlight the case.

The US State Department has also been asked to intervene by gay rights campaigners.

The date of the execution was originally reported as today (January 21st) although this is now unclear.

Gay rights activist Paul Canning, who wrote for PinkNews.co.uk about the case this week, said: “This case has been difficult to write about because of the dangers for sources of information in Iran, changing or limited information and because of the obvious politics which surround any such case.

“However this does not mean we can stand by and do nothing. Previous cases, in particular that of the woman sentenced to stoning for adultery, now changed to imprisonment, show that sometimes international pressure works.

“I am delighted that pressure does now appear to be being applied.”

Source: Pink News, January 21, 2011

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Iran suspends death penalty of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani: Top MP

Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani

TEHRAN (ISNA)-An Iranian top Parliament Member Zohreh Elahian said death penalty of an Iranian woman accused of killing her husband was suspended.

"Stoning verdict of Sakineh Mohammadi- Ashtiani has not been finalized and it is suspended at the moment, but she is sentenced to 10-year jail term," said the Chairwoman of Iranian Parliament Human Rights Committee in her letter to Brazilian new President Dilma Rousseff in which she explained some points raised by Roussef on Iran.

Elahian said that stoning penalty of the Iranian woman is suspended since families of her husband have forgiven her, but she was sentenced to 10-year imprisonment.

Mohammadi-Ashtiani was sentenced to stoning due to charges of having adultery and killing her husband.

Elahian in her letter insisted that, "according to evidence the Iranian woman has betrayed to her family and killed her husband jointly with her beloved. She has confessed to her crimes during her trial process."

Elahian also added that smear campaign launched by western media seeks psychological war with political motives against the Islamic Republic of Iran.

In December, the then Brazilian president-elect expressed disappointment with her government's decision to abstain from voting on a UN resolution condemning Iran's human rights record.

The resolution passed by a vote of 80 to 44, with 57 abstentions and spearheaded by Canada, accused the Islamic Republic of human rights violations.

Source: ISNA, January 17, 2011

Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani to sue German journalists

Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani

(CNN) -- A woman convicted of murder and adultery and sentenced to die by stoning said Saturday she would sue the two German journalists who interviewed her son, Iran's government-backed Press TV reported.

The men, identified only as a reporter and photojournalist, were arrested in October after they interviewed the son and lawyer of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, who was convicted of adultery in 2006 and sentenced to death by stoning.

Her case has drawn sharp criticism from the international community. No date has been set for her execution.

Ashtiani told reporters in the northwestern city of Tabriz that she planned to sue the German nationals, Press TV reported. The men, who work for the Bild am Sonntag newspaper, are charged with espionage and are accused of working illegally as journalists in Iran.

Germany-based anti-stoning activist Mina Ahadi said that government and prison officials were also at the press conference.

"This regime has a history of pressuring innocent people into confessing on television. This is just another example of their propaganda," she said.

Speaking outside the prison, Ashtiani criticized her lawyers for politicizing her case and denied she had been pressured to give interviews, Press TV said.

Ashtiani's son, Sajjad Qaderzadeh, was released from jail three weeks ago on humanitarian grounds, according to Press TV.

He had served more than a month in prison for granting the interview, Press TV reported.

Qaderzadeh appeared with his mother on Saturday and similarly said that he would sue the German nationals as well as his lawyers, who asked him to do the interview, Press TV said.

The son also added that he plans to take legal action against Issa Taheri, who Press TV said murdered Qaderzadeh's father in collaboration with Ashtiani.

Germany's Bild newspaper, a sister publication of Bild am Sonntag, published an editorial Sunday criticizing the reported lawsuit plans.

"The woman who has been sentenced to death was allowed to leave her jail cell for a few hours to declare in front of western TV cameras that she would file a suit against our reporters," the editorial said.

It concludes, "Does Iran really think that a strange farce like this will improve the credibility of its justice system abroad?"

Source: CNN.com, January 2, 2010

Survey shows 40 percent of Muslims students in UK endorse Islamic law: WikiLeaks

Nearly one-third of Muslim college students in Britain support killing in the name of religion, while 40 percent want to live under Islamic law, according to a secret cable from the U.S. Embassy in London that reviewed public polling data and government population predictions.

A survey of 600 Islamic and 800 non-Islamic students at 30 universities found that 32 percent of the Muslims believed in religious killing, while only 2 percent of non-Muslim students felt religious murder was justified, the cable said, referring to a poll conducted by the Center for Social Cohesion.

The embassy cable, released by the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks, said the same survey revealed that 54 percent of Muslim students want to be represented by an Islamic-based political party.

The poll also showed that 40 percent of Muslim students endorse Islamic, or Shariah, law, which can impose the death penalty for religious heresy and adultery, often by stoning, or the amputation of hands for theft. Since 2008, Britain has allowed Muslims to follow Shariah law in civil cases, but not in criminal trials.

Click here to read the full article.

Source: Embassy Row, James Morrison, The Washington Post, December 19, 2010

Artists, politicians write letter to free Iran's Ashtiani

LONDON (Reuters) - More than 80 artists, academics and politicians including actor Robert Redford, British singer Sting and France's Bernard Kouchner on Monday called for the release of an Iranian woman sentenced to death by stoning.

Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani has been accused of adultery and of being complicit in her husband's murder but her sentence to be stoned to death was suspended after an international outcry.

"Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani has suffered enough," the signatories said in an open letter to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on the front page of The Times newspaper.

"We, the undersigned, call on the government of Iran to release immediately Ms Ashtiani, her son Sajad Ghaderzade, and her lawyer, Javid Houtan Kian, from incarceration," they said.

The European Union's foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, the leader of Britain's Labour party Ed Miliband, American actor Robert De Niro, Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoe and Nobel literature laureate Wole Soyinka are among the signatories.

Ashtiani's sentence to be stoned for adultery -- the only crime which carries that penalty under Iran's Islamic sharia law -- was suspended earlier this year, but she still faces possible execution by hanging for complicity in the murder of her husband.

The European Union has called the sentence "barbaric," the Vatican pleaded for clemency and Brazil, which has tried to intervene in Iran's standoff with the West over its nuclear programme, offered Ashtiani asylum.

While Iranian officials say Ashtiani's case is purely a matter for the judiciary, it has become an international political cause and the head of Iran's Council of Human Rights said last month there was "a good chance that her life could be saved."

Source: Reuters, Iran Focus, December 13, 2010

Woman convicted of adultery, murder appears on Iranian TV

"Ashtiani was brought back to her home
in Osku "to produce a visual account" of the
death of her husband "at the crime scene."

(CNN) -- A woman convicted of murder and adultery and sentenced to die by stoning confesses to her part in the plot to kill her husband on an Iranian television program aired Friday night.

But the family of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani has steadfastly denied that she played any role in her husband's death -- and a human rights organization that is trying to help Ashtiani called the program "a theatrical melodrama."

"There was a complete disregard for due process, bringing her out and making her a part of this theatrical melodrama is an attempt to try to convince the international public opinion that she is guilty," said Hadi Ghaemi, director of International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran.

Iran has drawn sharp criticism from the international community after Ashtiani's 2010 sentence to death by stoning. Officials ranging from Pope Benedict XVI to the European Union's top foreign policy official, Catherine Ashton, urged Iran not to carry out the sentence.

"Since the international outcry, the Iranian government is tap-dancing, trying to justify executing her," said Ghaemi.

Press TV, Iran's government-backed English language station, aired the half-hour special on "Iran Today." The program included interviews with -- among others -- Ashtiani and her son.

The program brought Ashtiani back to her home in Osku "to produce a visual account" of the death of her husband "at the crime scene."

"This is highly unusual because according to Iranian authorities this is a woman who is in prison convicted of adultery and murder and now she has apparently been plucked out of her jail cell and featured in this documentary," said CNN's Reza Sayah

"This was a program designed to promote the government's position," said Sayah.

This is not the first time Ashtiani has been brought out in front of cameras for an alleged confession.

The program also condemns the public campaign to free her.

"It was a very disturbing piece, it was the Iranian government turning a judicial case into a public relations case," said Ghaemi.

Press TV's release of still photographs of Ashtiani and her son from the interview, which took place on Sunday, fueled some speculation that they had been released, but there was no evidence or confirmation to support that conjecture.

Ashtiani was convicted of adultery in 2006. She also received a 10 year prison sentence for her alleged cooperation in the plot to kill her husband.

"The key point here is not just about Ashtiani, but about abolishing stoning in Iran. That is what the Iranian government is trying to diverge attention from. They don't want to talk about abolishing stoning or Iran's human rights record," said Ghaemi.

Two German journalists who interviewed Ashtiani were arrested in October and charged with espionage. He son and lawyer also were arrested, but it was not clear on what charges.

Source: CNN.com, December 11, 2010

Iranian TV shows Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani at home

Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, who was sentenced to death by stoning for adultery, was interviewed at home on Iran's state-run Press TV a few days ago, prompting human rights campaigners to erroneously celebrate her release.

Human rights campaigners condemned an Iranian television programme, aired tonight [December 10, 2010], which showed Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, the woman sentenced to death by stoning, at her home apparently discussing her part in the murder of her husband.

Despite speculation that she had been released, Iran's state news agency confirmed that Mohammadi Ashtiani remains in prison.

Her jailed son also appeared in the programme, in which he played the role of his father in a reconstruction.

Iran's state-run Press TV, said it had been arranged with Iran's judicial authorities to accompany his mother to her house to record her recounting the crime and that she had agreed to do so.

"There are always two sides to a story and sometimes more," said the voice of a narrator who described Mohammadi Ashtiani as a "prostitute" and "adulterous woman".

In what was portrayed as a 'confession' Mohammadi Ashtiani was filmed saying that one of her husband's relatives, Isa Saharkhiz, asked her to render her husband unconscious before he could electrocute him. "We planned to kill my husband," she said, before showing in a reconstruction how she made him unconscious with an injection.

Curiously, Press TV also broadcast footage of Saharkhiz, who remains free. It said he had not agreed to be interviewed but failed to explain why he remains at liberty.

The channel also said Mohammadi Ashtiani's case remained open. It broadcast an interview with Mohammad Javad Larijani, an adviser to the Iranian supreme leader, in which he made previously reported comments that there was a "good chance" that her life could yet be spared.

However, hopes that she had been freed after photographs emerged of her at her home before the broadcast were dashed. The Italian foreign minister, Franco Frattini, and Maureen Harper, the wife of the Canadian prime minister, were among those who had welcomed unconfirmed reports of Mohammadi Ashtiani's release. Based on the photographs, several newspapers around the world also wrongly reported that she had been freed.

Earlier today Mousa Khalil-Elahi, a judiciary official in Tabriz, confirmed to Iran's state news agency, IRNA, that Mohammadi Ashtiani had not been freed. Khalil-Elahi was quoted by IRNA as saying: "Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani is in prison and the reports about her release are false." He added: "There's no development in her case and she is still kept in Tabriz prison. She is in good health."Mohammadi Ashtiani has already appeared on state TV three times, but activists say her apparent confessions have been coerced.

Clare Bracey of Amnesty said: "International standards for fair trial, to which Iran is a state party, guarantee the right not to be forced to incriminate oneself or to confess guilt. The judiciary is in charge of this case and would have to have given permission for such an interview to take place. To organise a televised 'confession' midway through a judicial review of a serious case – where a woman's life hangs in the balance – makes a mockery of Iran's legal system."

She added: "That judicial review [for Mohammadi Ashtiani] is further hampered by the fact that Sakineh's son and lawyer have been detained. If Sajad Qaderzadeh and Javid Houtan Kian are being held solely for peacefully highlighting Sakineh's case, they should be released immediately and unconditionally."

Mohammadi Ashtiani's son Sajad was arrested in October along with her lawyer, Houtan Kian, and two German journalists who were detained after trying to interview her family.

Mina Ahadi of the International Committee against Stoning (Icas) said in reaction: "It is very, very sad for me to see that Iran has forced Sakineh's son, Sajad, to play in the role of his dead father in the reconstruction of the murder. This is really outrageous."

Houtan Kian also appeared in front of the camera claiming that he and Sajad had been taking orders from Mina Ahadi, an Iranian human rights activist who has publicised Mohammadi Ashtiani's case internationally.

Mohammadi Ashtiani was convicted in May 2006 of conducting an illicit relationship outside marriage. She was given a sentence of 99 lashes, but her case was reopened when a court in Tabriz suspected her of murdering her husband. She was acquitted, but the adultery charge was reviewed and a death penalty handed down on the basis of "judge's knowledge" – a loophole that allows for subjective judicial rulings where no conclusive evidence is present.

Embarrassed by international condemnation of the stoning sentence, Iran has tried to distract attention from Mohammadi Ashtiani's initial charge of adultery by introducing new charges against her and portraying her as a murderer.

Iran rarely carries out stonings. It executed 388 people last year, more than any other country apart from China, according to Amnesty International. Most were hanged. Ten Iranian women and four men are on death row awaiting execution by stoning.

In Pictures: Iranian TV shows Ashtiani at home. Click here to view the photo gallery

Source: The Guardian, December 11, 2010

Iran Denies Freeing Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani

'Photographs apparently showing Sakineh
at home with her son appeared in the media.'

TEHRAN — Iran denied reports on Friday that it has freed a woman sentenced to death by stoning after human rights campaigners stoked confusion by releasing unconfirmed reports to the press.

A report Friday on the Web site of Iran’s state-run English language news channel Press TV (or see story below) said reports of the release of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, 43, were false and were part of a “vast publicity campaign by Western media.”

On Thursday night, foreign news reports citing a group supporting her based in Germany said that Iran’s authorities had released Ms. Ashtiani, along with her son and her lawyer .

“We have got news from Iran that they are free,” Mina Ahadi, spokeswoman for the International Campaign Against Stoning, was quoted as saying.

The unconfirmed report prompted foreign governments to welcome the news with Maureen Harper, the wife of the Canadian prime minister, and Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini both issuing statements.

The news report also ran images showing Ashtiani standing in the doorway of her home in a village in Iran’s northwestern Azarbaijan region and speaking with her son, Sajjad Ghaderzadeh, in an informal setting, prompting further speculation that she had been released.

The photographs have subsequently been revealed to be stills from a new documentary program, due to be aired on Press TV, which will show Ms. Ashtiani guiding a camera crew around the home where she and an accomplice allegedly plotted to murder her husband in 2006. She was originally sentenced to death by stoning for adultery but that sentenced was suspended and authorities have reframed the charges against her as murder.

“Press TV has arranged with Iran’s judicial authorities to follow Ashtiani to her house to produce a visual recount of the crime at the murder scene,” Friday’s report on the channel’s Web site said.

Iran’s latest attempt to counter the international media campaign against Ms. Ashtiani’s execution is its first to directly address foreign audiences on the issue. On two previous occasions, Iranian state broadcasting has aired confessions by Ms. Ashtiani as well as denunciations by her of human rights campaigners who have joined her cause.

“They are taking my side unnecessarily, I do not consider them legitimate at all,” Ms. Ashtiani said in comments aired on domestic television in November which her lawyers have said were made under pressure during detention.

Two German nationals who entered Iran intending to interview Ms. Ashtiani’s son remain in detention more than two months after being arrested by Iranian security officers in October. The two, said to be a reporter and a photographer working for Germany’s Bild am Sonntag newspaper, have been charged with spying after confessing to having entered Iran without proper journalistic accreditation, Iranian judicial officials say.

Source: The New York Times, December 10, 2010

Iran TV denies condemned woman free

Press TV denies reports that Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, sentenced to death by stoning, has been freed by regime.

Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, the Iranian woman whose sentence of death by stoning sparked global outrage, has not been been freed from jail, Iran's English language Press TV has said.

A German campaign group said on Thursday that Ashtiani had been released after photographs apparently showing her at home with her son appeared in the media.

But state-run Press TV said on Friday (or see story below) that Ashtinai had been taken to the house to carry out a reconstruction of the alleged murder of her husband, and was not free.

"Contrary to a vast publicity campaign by Western media that confessed murderer Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani has been released, a broadcast production team with the Iran-based Press TV has arranged with Iran's judicial authorities to follow Ashtiani to her house to produce a visual recount of the crime at the murder scene," Press TV said on its website.

The channel said it would air the programme, which includes interviews with people involved in case, at 2035GMT on Friday.

Campaigners wrongfooted

The news will come as a blow to campaigners who were celebrating Ashtiani's release. When photographs of her at home emerged on Thursday, campaigners hailed them as evidence of a "historic" victory.

Patty Debonitas, a spokesperson for the International Committee Against Stoning (ICAS), one of the main groups which campaigned on behalf of Ashtiani, told Al Jazeera that the campaign had been a success.

"It's a historical success because the international outcry worked," Debonitas said on Thursday. But it appears that the group was wrongfooted by the photographs.

Ghanbar Naderi, an Iranian journalist said that the fact that Ashtiani was allowed out of prison at all could be seen as a positive development.

"She has been released temporarily to retell her story and reenact the events that led to the murder of her husband," he said. She hasn't been released for good - she only helped a documentary crew to make a documentary about her case. This might be good news, because she might be released."

Ashitani has been sentenced to death twice. The first court decision to hang her for the murder of her husband was commuted to a 10-year jail sentence by an appeals court in 2007.

But she was later condemned to die by stoning for adultery, a sentence which was upheld by another appeals court.

The European Union called has called Ashtiani's sentence "barbaric," while the Brazilian government offered her asylum.

Source: Al Jazeera, December 10, 2010


Iranian TV: 'Ashtiani recounts murder on Press TV'

An Iranian woman convicted of murder and adultery has accompanied a team of TV production group to her house to recount details of killing her husband at the crime scene.

Contrary to a vast publicity campaign by Western media that confessed murderer Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani has been released, a team of broadcast production team with the Iran-based Press TV has arranged with Iran's judicial authorities to follow Ashtiani to her house to produce a visual recount of the crime at the murder scene.

Press TV's "Iran Today" program, will shed light on the highways and byways of the murder account with multiple interviews with people and individuals involved in the case.

Sajjad Asgharzadeh, Sakineh's son, and her lwayer Hootan Kian are among the individuals that have spoken to the production team.

Earlier on Thursday, some western media outlets claimed that Ashtiani has been released from prison.

Iran has cited political motives behind the Western propaganda effort regarding the legal ruling against Mohammadi-Ashtiani, arguing that the publicity scheme is part of a Western campaign to undermine the Islamic Republic establishment.

Ashtiani has been found guilty of murdering her husband, Ibrahim Asgharzadeh, in collusion with another man, Isa Taheri, whom she had an affair with before the murder.

Press TV's "Iran Today" program on Ashtiani's case is scheduled to go on air on Friday December 10 at 20:35 GMT and will be aired again on Saturday December 11 at 01:35 GMT, 06:35 GMT and 14:35 GMT.

Source: PressTV, December 10, 2010


Reports of latest Ashtiani TV 'confession' in Iran condemned

Amnesty International today condemned reports that Iran's state-controlled Press TV will tonight broadcast a new "confession" by an Iranian woman who faces possible execution by stoning or hanging.

"If reports are accurate that tonight's broadcast will contain another televised 'confession' from Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, its potential impact on her case should not be underestimated," said Philip Luther, Deputy Director of the Middle East and North Africa Programme at Amnesty International.

"If the authorities are seeking to use this 'confession' to try to construct a new case against her, for a crime that she's already been tried and sentenced for, we would condemn this in the strongest terms."

Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani was sentenced to a 10-year prison term in 2006 for the murder of her husband, which her lawyer has said was subsequently reduced to 5 years for "complicity" in the murder.

She was also sentenced to death by stoning for "adultery while married". Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani is held in Tabriz Prison, East Azerbaijan province, awaiting the outcome of a judicial review of her stoning sentence.

According to media reports a production team from Press TV collected Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani from prison, along with her son Sajjad Qaderzadeh, who is also currently detained, and took them to her former home to produce a "visual recount of the crime at the murder scene", apparently for a "documentary".

International standards for fair trial guarantee the right not to be forced to incriminate oneself or to confess guilt.

Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani's current lawyer Javid Houtan Kiyan, arrested and detained along with Sajjad Qaderzadeh for campaigning for her life to be spared, is also understood to have been interviewed by Press TV for the programme.

"It appears that the Iranian authorities are using the Iranian media as a tool to portray her as a dangerous criminal who deserves to be executed. Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani must not be executed by any means, and if she continues to be held solely on the grounds of consensual sexual relations, the Iranian authorities must release her," said Philip Luther.

"At the same time, the international community, which has rightly expressed serious concerns about this case, must also step up the attention it gives to the other ongoing and very serious human rights violations in Iran. As Student Day was celebrated in Iran on Tuesday this week, student activists Milad Assadi, Behareh Hedayat, Majid Tavakkoli, Majid Dorri and Zia Nabavi were all serving lengthy prison sentences imposed solely for their peaceful activism. They and hundreds of other prisoners of conscience in Iran must be released immediately and unconditionally."

Source: Associated Press, December 10, 2010

Iran authorities chop off man's hand

Hand amputation in Iran

Tehran, Dec. 02 - Iranian authorities amputated the hand of a man in a prison in the western province of Kermanshah.

The sentence was carried out on Wednesday in the presence of local judiciary officials and other prisoners, according to the state-run news agency ISNA. The report did not identify the man other than to say that he had been convicted of stealing.

Iran's Islamic penal system regularly practices centuries-old sentences for petty crimes, such as amputation of limbs, eye gouging, stoning to death, and throwing prisoners off a cliff in a sac.

On 24 October, state radio reported that authorities amputated the hand of a 32-year-old man in front of other prisoners in the central city of Yazd.

On 16 October, the state-run Fars news agency reported that an Iranian court had condemned a 21-year-old man convicted of stealing chocolates and cocoa from a Tehran pastry shop to have a hand chopped off.

On 22 July, authorities amputated the hands of five men accused of stealing in the city of Hamedan, western Iran, the state-run news agency ILNA reported.

On 2 July, authorities amputated the hand of a man accused of stealing in the city of Malayer, western Iran, the semi-official daily Kayhan reported.

International human rights bodies have repeatedly called on the regime to halt inhumane and degrading punishments.

Source: Iran Focus, December 2, 2010