Iran Halts Stoning Sentence
The New York Times reports:
An Iranian official has confirmed that the government halted the death sentence by stoning of a woman charged with adultery, but he reiterated that she was still facing murder charges.
The official, Ramin Mehmanparast, a spokesman for Iran’s Foreign Ministry, was the highest-ranking Iranian official to formally acknowledge that Iran had suspended the woman’s stoning, a sentence that provoked an international outcry and intensified criticism of Iran’s human rights record.
Mr. Mehmanparast made the comments at a weekly news conference here on Tuesday, saying that officials were reviewing the adultery charges against the woman, Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani. But he said officials were still moving ahead with sentencing Ms. Ashtiani on charges that she assisted in the murder of her husband. A conviction on that charge could result in the death sentence or a prison term.
Iran had previously indicated it had lifted Ms. Ashtiani’s stoning sentence, even as it gave indications she would instead be executed by hanging.
Ms. Ashtiani was convicted of adultery in 2006, but the charges of abetting murder emerged just weeks ago, as Iranian officials responding to a fusillade of criticism from human-rights groups and foreign leaders sought to tilt focus away from the adultery charges and portray Ms. Ashtiani as a killer.
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