Woman To Be Stoned To Death For Adultery In Iran

M.today

Iran, July 7: Sakina  Mohammadi Ashtiani is awaiting a punishment in Iran for a charge of adultery leveled against her. She will be half-buried till her chest  and stoned to death.

The children of Sakina  Mohammadi Ashtiani and human rights activists groups are trying to keep her from stoning for adultery.

 

As it is, she’s been in prison for 5-years and flogged for the offense that her children say didn’t happen.

Sakina’s children have succeeded in getting international attention in support of their mother’s case. They are attempting to save her life. The Iranian mother is to be stoned for committing adultery, a crime punishable by death in the Islamic Republic of Iran. An international campaign has been launched in an attempt to save her life.

Her children, Sajad, 22-year-old son, and Farideh, 17-year-old daughter, have told newspapers that she is not guilty of the crimes she has been convicted of committing, specifically adultery.

She has already been punished with a flogging of 99 lashes and been in an Iranian prison for 5-years.

Her son Sajad told reporters:  “She’s innocent, she’s been there for five years for doing nothing. Imagining her, bound inside a deep hole in the ground, stoned to death, has been a nightmare for me and my sister for all these years”.

Ashtiani, 42-years-old, was convicted of adultery in 2006. According to Iranian law, she will be buried up to her chest. Stones will be hurled at her that are large enough to cause pain, but not immediate death.

Ashtiani signed a confession after she was flogged with 99-lashes. She later retracted her confession and there are no witnesses testifying to her guilt.

Her attorney, Mohammed Mostafaei, said that her sentence is illegal because there are no explicit witnesses to the alleged adultery.

She received a death sentence after she was charged with killing her husband.

She was acquitted of the murder, but sentenced to die for adultery in spite of there being no evidence that she is guilty. Iranian law allows judges to make decision based on their own ‘feelings’ about a case.

A German activist, Mina Ahadi, said that since Ashtiani’s children launched an international campaign to save their mother, she has heard from the families of two other women who are being held in the Tabriz Prison and are sentenced to death by stoning.

 One of those women was arrested when she was 15-years-old but not sentenced until she was 18-years-old because that is the minimum age for the death penalty.