This undated image made available by Amnesty International in London, Thursday July 8, 2010, shows Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, a mother of two who is facing the punishment of stoning to death in Iran, on charges of adultery.Amnesty International
In a push back against international efforts to save a 45-year-old woman from death by stoning, an Iranian justice official insists that "Western media propaganda" will not prevent him from carrying out the execution as soon as he gets final judicial approval.
Malek Ajdar Sharifi, the judiciary chief of Iran's East Azerbaijan, says the crimes committed by Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani were so heinous that "if she had only cut [off]the head of her husband, it would have been better than what she has done."
He told the Iranian New Agency in Tabriz, the provincial capital, that "the verdict has been halted due to humanitarian reservations and upon the order of the honourable judiciary chief and it will not be carried out for the moment," he said. "Whenever the judiciary chief [Sadeq Larijani]deems it expedient, the verdict will be carried out regardless of Western media propaganda."
Government officials, celebrities and ordinary citizens from around the world have joined international human-rights organizations in a growing campaign against the stoning sentence given to Ms. Mohammadi Ashtiani. She was first convicted on May 15, 2006, of having an "illicit relationship" with two men, for which she received 99 lashes. At a subsequent trial of a man accused of murdering her husband, Ms. Mohammadi Ashtiani was charged with "adultery while being married." It is for that crime that she has been sentenced to death by stoning.
On the weekend, Mohammad Javad Larijani, the head of Iran's High Council for Human Rights, lashed out against the international campaign to spare Ms. Mohammadi Ashtiani, while pointing out that stoning is rarely used.
"The commotion that the Western media has started in connection with this case will not affect our judges' views," he said, noting that the West is fixated on the form of capital punishment, not on the crimes. "The execution of Islamic religious laws on [such things as]death by stoning, hijab and inheritance, has always faced their audacious animosity and, basically, any issue which hints of religious law is always opposed by them," he said.
He also stresses that stonings are infrequent. "I must point out that, first of all, the punishment of death by stoning exists in our constitution but the esteemed judges issue this verdict on very rare occasions."
It's rarely used for a reason, says Saeed Rahnema, a professor of political science at York University in Toronto. "It's not at all popular with the people of Iran, and it gives the country an international black eye."
"The regime is really trying to rein in their number," Mr. Rahnema said.
The sentence is so unpopular, he added, "the authorities often resort to a rent-a-crowd to carry them out … promising the 20 or 30 people heavenly rewards, as well some financial inducement."
"People can't say so publicly in Iran," said Mansour Farhang, revolutionary Iran's first ambassador to the United Nations, "but you'll find stoning is widely criticized on websites and international radio."
According to one site, Roozonline, popular with ex-patriot Iranian journalists, there are as many as 15 people convicted of adultery in the same Tabriz courts. They are said to be in danger of receiving the same sentence as Ms. Mohammadi Ashtiani.
Prof. Farhang, who resigned his diplomatic post over the holding of U.S. hostages in Tehran in 1979 and now teaches political science at Bennington College in Vermont, says the international campaign against the execution by stoning is having an effect.
"You hear two kinds of arguments," he said. "Some attack the execution just because of the reprehensible nature of stoning."
"That's widely heard inside Iran and among Iranians," he said.
"Others attack the sentence because they're opposed to any form of capital punishment," he added. "That's a more common international sentiment."
The outcome of all that, Mr. Farhang, says, might be an execution by other means (hanging or shooting), but it might well be a commuting of Ms. Mohammadi Ashtiani's death sentence.
"International campaigns like this one have certainly worked in the past," he said.