Iranian authorities announced that the sentence to hang Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, Iranian woman sentenced to stoning in an earlier case, has been suspended with consent of the family of the victim.
In a letter to the Brazilian president, head of human rights committee of the Iranian parliament wrote that Sakineh Mohammadi has been sentenced to ten years in prison and her stoning sentence has not been finalized.
In the past months, the international community joined a campaign to stop the stoning sentence of Sakineh Mohammadi who was accused of adultery and complicity in the murder of her husband by Iranian judiciary.
While the stoning sentence had been suspended, Mohammadi Ashtiani still faced hanging for involvement in the murder of her husband but that sentence is now also suspended.
Zohreh Elahian, head of Iranian parliament’s human rights committee writes that the international protests against Mohmmadi Ashtiani are “lies, psychological warfare, much commotion in the guise of human rights activity and mere propaganda against Iran."
She writes that Mohmmadi Ashtiani was prosecuted based on verifiable documents and evidence, and during the trial, she directly confessed to “having illicit relationships and participating in the murder of her husband.”
The Iranian lawmaker goes on to speak out against the “double-sided policies” of the international media regarding human rights issues in view of the information blackout on the execution of Teresa Lewis in the United States who was convicted of murdering her husband while highlighting th case of Mohammadi Ashtiani in Iran.
Lewis was executed last September amidst a wave of protests and her lawyer’s insistence that her mental instability made her an easy prey for her other accomplices.
Elahian’s letter is addressed to Dilma Roussef, the Brazilian president apparentlyt because in November the Brazilian president had referred to Mohammad Ashtiani’s stoning sentence as “ a barbarous act.”
