by MARTHA CALHOON
International concern was sparked early this week when an Iranian prosecutor indicated that Sakineh Ashtiani’s execution for adultery could be imminent.
Ashtiani is currently serving 10 years in prison after being convicted as an accessory to her husband’s 2005 murder. In a separate trial, she was found guilty of adultery and sentenced to stoning, but the Iranian judiciary suspended the punishment in 2010 after international outcry.
On December 26, Malek Ajdar Sharifi, prosecutor general of Persian Azerbaijan, told the press that the facility holding Ashtiani was not equipped to carry out a stoning, and that experts were determining whether Islamic law permits the sentence to be converted to death by hanging. “As soon as the result of the investigation is obtained, we will carry out the sentence,” he said.
But human rights groups Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch say there is nothing to indicate that Ashtiani is in new danger of execution. Instead, the statement by Sharifi (who has since claimed he was misquoted) may amount to mere bluster in a political tug-of-war between a hardline provincial court and the more moderate, image-conscious central government. Or it may represent an attempt to test the international temperature around Ashtiani’s case after a more than a year of near-silence.
In any case, the absence of a definitive answer leaves Ashtiani in a precarious position: Until the adultery conviction is officially overturned, she is subject to the whims of Iran’s judiciary.
Ms for more