Iran stoning woman offered asylum by

Brazil's president Lula

Offer raises hopes Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, the Iranian woman
sentenced to death by stoning for adultery, will be spared

Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani. Photograph: AP

Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has stepped into the international outcry over
Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, the Iranian woman sentenced to death by stoning for adultery, by
offering his country as a refuge, a move which raised hopes her life will be spared.

The surprise offer prompted an immediate reaction from Iran, which considers Brazil a key ally.
Iranian officials softened their tone with Ashtiani's family over the weekend and official media
reported full details of the story for the first time.

"I don't think Iran can ignore Brazil as easily as it ignored other countries," Ashtiani's son, Sajad,
told the Guardian today. "It is very important that Brazil, as one of Iran's most significant allies in
the world, has offered a haven for my mother."

He hoped Turkey, which also carries influence with Tehran, would add its voice. "No countries in
the world can have such impacts that Brazil and Turkey can have on Iran now. These two
countries can save my mother's life," said Sajad.

Ashtiani, a 43-year-old mother of two, was convicted in 2006 of having an "illicit relationship"
with two men and received 99 lashes. A court later amended the conviction to "adultery while
being married" and sentenced her to death by stoning.

Iran rebuffed clemency appeals by human rights campaigners and the west but signalled
willingness to listen to a South American ally who has forged a close bond with President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and defended Iran's right to a peaceful nuclear programme.
Lula offered Ashtiani asylum at a political rally yesterday in Curitiba, southern Brazil. "If my
friendship with the president of Iran and the regard I hold him in is worth something, if this
woman is causing discomfort, then we will willingly receive her here."

He added: "I find myself imagining what would happen if one day there was a country in the
world that would stone a man because he was cheating. Nothing justifies the state taking
someone's life. Only God gives life and only He should take it away."

Tehran, short of international friends, seemed keen to appease a Brazilian ally who has been
criticised at home and abroad for championing Iran's case at the UN.

Shortly after Lula's speech Iranian officials rang Sajad and said his mother's case would be dealt
with this week. "Their tone was more polite than before. After President Lula's comment, for the
first time agencies in Iran reported my mother's stoning case, it shows how important Brazil is for
Iran."

A source close to the family said Ashtiani's lawyer, Houtan Kian, had been summoned to a
meeting in Tehran's high court on Wednesday and that the case could be resolved the same day.

Lula's intervention ended weeks of Iranian media blackout over Ashtiani. The semi-official Fars
News Agency – mouthpiece of the regime – reported Lula's offer and for the first time said
Ashtiani was sentenced to death by stoning for adultery. Usually it censors the word stoning.

Jahan News, a website close to Iran's Revolutionary Guards, struck a critical tone. "The Brazilian
president is under the influence of western propaganda … and has interfered in Iran's internal
affairs." It said Ashtiani was convicted of adultery and murder, even though a court rejected the
latter charge.

Lula's offer was a rare foray into international human rights. The Guardian understands the move
came after a presidential aide brought an internet campaign against the execution to the president's
attention.

In a recent conversation Brazil's foreign minister, Celso Amorim, is understood to have urged his
Iranian counterpart, Manouchehr Mottaki, to grant Ashtiani a pardon.

Specific details of the asylum proposal – such as where Ashtiani might live in Brazil – have not
yet been examined, said a source familiar with the talks. "None of this has been thought about yet.
If she was exiled she would be able to go wherever she wanted. No solution would involve
separation from her children."

Keen to boost Brazil's role on the global stage, Lula has made recent trips to the Middle East and
rebuked US-led sanctions against Iran.

Western diplomats in Brasilia said the asylum offer may be linked to speculation that Lula wants
to become the UN's next secretary general after he leaves office at the end of the year. "How can
you become secretary general if you haven't shown some inclination on human rights?"

Human rights activists said the offer could save the condemned prisoner. "I'm sure Iran was not
expecting Brazil to join Sakineh's campaign and this unprecedented move … will change the way
Iran sees Sakineh's case," said Mina Ahadi of the Iran Committee against Stoning (ICAS).
She urged Brazil to use its influence to lobby for the release of at least 12 other women awaiting
execution by stoning.

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/aug/01/iran-stoning-woman-brazil
Iran stoning sentence woman asks to be
reunited with her children
Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani's supporters call for support to free her from
prison, after sentence was changed to hanging

Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani's supporters hope pressure can be applied to Tehran to free her from
prison. Photograph: AP

The Iranian woman whose sentence of death by stoning was commuted to hanging after an
international campaign, today sent a message from inside Tabriz prison calling for further support
so that she might be reunited with her children.

Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, a 43-year-old mother of two, said she thinks of nothing other than
hugging her children and that she was mentally broken when authorities flogged her 99 times in
front of her then 17-year-old son, Sajad.

She thanked the world for launching the campaign for her release but said part of her "heart is
frozen". "Every night before I go to sleep, I think who would throw stones at me?", she said.

The message was read by Mina Ahadi, of the Iran Committee against Stoning (ICAS), at a press
conference in Conway Hall, in London, this morning .

"Put Sakineh's picture beside Neda Agha-Soltan's and don't let Iran repeat what it did with Neda
again with Sakineh," said Ahadi, an Iranian human rights activist. Agha-Soltan was shot to death
in the aftermath of Iran's disputed election in June 2009 and became a symbol of Iran's post-
election rebellion.
Yesterday, Iran allowed Mohammadi Ashtiani's family to have a full contact visit with her in the
prison.

"When I told her about the world's support for her, that the world doesn't think she has done any
crime even if she had had an adulterous relationship, I had the feeling that once again she regained
her honour ... after all those humiliations from the Iranian officials," Sajad, now 22, said.

After weeks of imposing a media blackout over Mohammadi Ashtiani, Iran's state-run TV
broadcast a report this week that tried to link her campaigners to "the west and Israel", and
accused them of calling for the release of someone who had been convicted of murder.

At the conference, ICAS presented a document showing Mohammadi Ashtiani had in fact been
convicted of adultery. She was originally sentenced to 99 lashes, but her case was reopened when
a court in Tabriz suspected her of murdering her husband. She was acquitted, but the adultery
charge was reviewed and the death by stoning sentence handed down on the basis of "judge's
knowledge".

The documents provided by ICAS show that two of five judges who investigated Mohammadi
Ashtiani's case concluded that there was no forensic evidence of adultery. "It's shocking, she's
sentenced to death by stoning because three judges think, just think, that you had an illicit
relationship outside marriage," said Maryam Namazie of the ICAS.

This week, Iran issued an arrest warrant for Mohammad Mostafaei, the lawyer who volunteered to
represent Mohammadi Ashtiani. Mostafaei has gone into hiding, but Iran has taken his
relativeshostage to force him to reappear. The Guardian has learned that Mostafaei is safe and
plans to publish an open letter to Tehran's prosecutor.

ICAS also issued a warning over the case of Mariam Ghorbanzadeh, 25, whose stoning sentence
was commuted to hanging this week.

Ghorbanzadeh is pregnant and human rights activists believe that Iranian authorities are putting
pressure on her in prison in the hope that she miscarries. They would then be allowed to execute
her.

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jul/30/iran-stoning-sentence-mohammadi-
ashtani

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