A
lawyer for an Iranian woman sentenced to death by stoning has told a
British newspaper she was tortured for two days before confessing on
state TV to being an accomplice to her husband's death. Sakineh
Mohammadi-Ashtiani's lawyer told the Guardian on Thursday that his
client, a 43-year-old mother of two, was forced to give the interview,
which was recorded in Tabriz prison where she has been held for the
past four years.
"She was severely beaten up and tortured until she accepted to appear in front of camera. Her 22-year-old son Sajad and her 17-year-old daughter Saeedeh are completely traumatised by watching this programme," lawyer Houtan Kian said on the newspaper's website.
The lawyer said he feared the Iranian authorities would act quickly to carry out the death sentence, which was reportedly commuted to hanging after an international outcry against her sentence last month.
The Guardian gave no details of where the lawyer was speaking.
Another of her lawyers, Mohammad Mostafaie, fled Iran this month and is now in Norway after Iranian officials issued an arrest warrant for him and detained his wife.
The sentence against Mohammadi-Ashtiani was initially for "having an illicit relationship outside marriage", which drew condemnation from many countries.
But in the interview broadcast on state TV, she said that a man with whom she was acquainted had offered to kill her husband and she let him carry out the crime.
In a separate interview with the Guardian last week, she claimed she had been acquitted of murder, "but the man who actually killed my husband was identified and imprisoned but he is not sentenced to death."
In the earlier Guardian interview, she attributed her treatment by the Iranian authorities to her gender. "It's because I'm a woman, it's because they think they can do anything to women in this country," she said.
"She was severely beaten up and tortured until she accepted to appear in front of camera. Her 22-year-old son Sajad and her 17-year-old daughter Saeedeh are completely traumatised by watching this programme," lawyer Houtan Kian said on the newspaper's website.
The lawyer said he feared the Iranian authorities would act quickly to carry out the death sentence, which was reportedly commuted to hanging after an international outcry against her sentence last month.
The Guardian gave no details of where the lawyer was speaking.
Another of her lawyers, Mohammad Mostafaie, fled Iran this month and is now in Norway after Iranian officials issued an arrest warrant for him and detained his wife.
The sentence against Mohammadi-Ashtiani was initially for "having an illicit relationship outside marriage", which drew condemnation from many countries.
But in the interview broadcast on state TV, she said that a man with whom she was acquainted had offered to kill her husband and she let him carry out the crime.
In a separate interview with the Guardian last week, she claimed she had been acquitted of murder, "but the man who actually killed my husband was identified and imprisoned but he is not sentenced to death."
In the earlier Guardian interview, she attributed her treatment by the Iranian authorities to her gender. "It's because I'm a woman, it's because they think they can do anything to women in this country," she said.
Sorry, ma'am, but they can.
Iran is governed by people
who can make up the rules as they go along, and one of the really sad
things about this is the fact that me and lots of folks like me would
fight to the death to help save you, but many Western women, the
members of NOW, and all the other liberated feminine gripping machines
remain absolutely silent on the issue.
It's like this; having given
up their place as cherished, well-protected human beings, liberated
gals know damned well that they would be fair game when push came to
shove. They hate firearms, know nothing about defending themselves
besides dialing 911, and are at their very core nothing but a gaggle of
abject stupidity turned rancid.
So you won't be getting any
help from "them". And while all we here can do is to broadcast your
horrible fate, and condemn the lawless cultists who killed you, we do
that with sadness laced sincerity. You have the same rights as any
other being on the planet, and the animals masquerading as a religious
entity will someday get their just desserts.
Betcha she says something. We'll even begin a watch here to keep an eye out for it.
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