Suspect in Iran stoning case allegedly confesses to being 'sinner'

Tue, 16 Nov 2010

Tehran - An Iranian woman claiming to be Sakineh Mohammadi-Ashtiani, who has been sentenced to death by stoning after an adultery conviction, confessed on Iranian state television to being a "sinner."

The woman, speaking in Azeri, said Monday night that she not only had a sexual liaison with her husband's cousin but also helped him kill her spouse.

A woman purported to be Mohammadi-Ashtiani also made a televised confession in August in which she confirmed the charges put forward by the Iranian judiciary.

Mohammadi-Ashtiani was sentenced to death on an adultery charge and is also under investigation for murder, for which she could also face the death penalty.

Iran employs televised confessions for political prisoners, a method that has met not only with harsh international criticism but also local opposition.

In Mohammadi-Ashtiani's case, the confession was believed to be aimed at defusing international condemnation of her sentence.

The TV footage also showed two men identified as her son, Sajad Qaderzadeh, and her lawyer, Houtan Kian, who were arrested on October 10 with two German reporters who wanted to interview them on the Mohammadi-Ashtiani case.

The son revised his earlier remarks to Western media that his mother was tortured and said without the ballyhoo in the West, his mother's case would have gone through normal procedures.

The man introduced as Kian said he lied to the foreign media about the case.

The British newspaper The Guardian in August quoted Kian as saying that the woman had been tortured for two days at the Tabriz prison in north-western Iran.

The sentence against Mohammadi-Ashtiani has provoked an international outcry with Western countries and human rights organizations calling on Iran to revise it.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/353735,allegedly-confesses-being-sinner.html.