Iran Tells West To Stay Out Of Woman's Stoning Case

[Devil Soul]

Iran Tells West To Stay Out Of Woman's Stoning Case

TEHRAN, Aug 17, 2010 (AFP) - Iran told Western nations on Tuesday to stay out of the case of a woman who faces death by stoning, warning it will not tolerate any interference in the matter still under examination.

"Independent nations do not allow other countries to interfere in their judicial affairs," Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast told a news conference.

The official was responding to questions from reporters about the status of Sakineh Mohammadi-Ashtiani, a 43-year-old mother of two sentenced to death by stoning by an Iranian court.

"Western nations must not pressurise and hype it (the case) up... judicial cases have precise procedures, especially when it concerns murder.

"The heavier the sentence, the more meticulous we are in carrying it out. This is being done," said Mehmanparast.

Western nations and human rights groups have come out strongly against Mohammadi-Ashtiani's stoning sentence and warned that her execution is imminent.

Iranian judiciary chief Sadeq Larijani has temporarily suspended the sentence from being carried out.

Officials in the Islamic republic maintain the woman was handed the stoning sentence for adultery and for being an accomplice in her husband's murder.

Her lawyers and London-based rights watchdog Amnesty International say she was only sentenced for having an "illicit relationship" with two men and that the murder charge was adopted later.

Mehmanparast said the outcry from the West over her case was "irrational" and "rather a politicised approach".

"If we are to free those who committed murders, there won't be any security. If this is the case, we can also demand that they free all those who have committed murders and serious crimes," he said.

When asked about Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's proposal to offer Mohammadi-Ashtiani asylum, he said Brazil would come to "understand it is a fuss created to undermine relations" between the two countries.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad echoed similar views in an interview on Iran's English-language Press TV broadcast on Sunday.

The hardliner said Iran's judiciary chief agreed Mohammadi-Ashtiani should not be sent to Brazil.

"I think there is no need to create some trouble for President Lula and to send her to Brazil. We are keen to export our technology to Brazil rather than such people. I think the problem will be solved" in Iran, Ahmadinejad said.

 

[T-Rex]

I believe that execution by hanging or electric chair is much more brutal than stoning to death. The fact is, they are just means of execution and all executions are brutal. It is moronic to say that the Christian or the American method is somehow more comfortable and this is exactly what the west is doing. It only reveals the hostility of the west towards anything Islamic.

 

[no_name]

I think there is more suffering in stoning than hanging where they just snap your neck. Dunno about electrocution and not keen to find out.

 

[T-Rex]

I think there is more suffering in stoning than hanging where they just snap your neck. Dunno about electrocution and not keen to find out.

Did you find this out from a person who was hanged ? It's just your opinion not fact.

 

[third eye]

Death by stoning takes you back to the stone ages.

Displays a sense of pleasure to see someone suffer, a brutal streak...and for what ? Illicit relationship ? Half the worlds population needs to be stoned then. It is possible that those passing such judgments themselves qualify for such treatment.

Iran is a nation I respect a great deal but cannot agree on this one. Its great to retain tradition and the rules of the past but their blind application in the present would put the applicator in the same league as Taliban or AQ.

 

[SMC]

Western countries don't really care about the stoning or the victim itself. I believe stoning is also used in KSA as a punishment in Saudi Arabia yet the western governments are supportive to KSA and are their allies. They're trying to get the maximum diplomatic and political mileage out of the issue. The whole humanitarian outcry is mere smokescreen for that.

 

[SpArK]

Lawyer says Iran stoning woman 'will not be executed'

By Stephen Sackur
Presenter, BBC HARDtalk

The Iranian lawyer who publicised the case of the Iranian woman condemned to death by stoning has talked to the BBC about the case, after being given asylum in Norway.
Mohammed Mostafaei looks surprisingly unruffled for a man whose life has been turned upside down.
He greets me in the foyer of an Oslo hotel with a firm handshake and a burst of dark humour.
"I must be crazy," he says in Farsi. "Last month I was being interrogated by Iranian intelligence. Now I'm agreeing to be interrogated by you."
Norway is a safe haven for Mostafaei after a long and agonising journey.
For years he has been one of Tehran's highest-profile human rights lawyers, specialising in the defence of prisoners, especially juveniles, facing the death penalty.

A year ago he took on the case of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, a 43-year-old woman sentenced first to 99 lashes and then to death by stoning, for adultery.
In June Mostafaei wrote about her case on his blog. He then gave a series of interviews to Western news organisations, highlighting her imminent and brutal end. Within days human rights organisations and politicians around the world were mounting a campaign to have her life spared.
The official reaction in Tehran was a mix of damage limitation and targeted retribution.
Family arrests
It was announced that Mohammadi Ashtiani would not, after all, be stoned to death, though her death sentence was not overturned. At the same time Mostafaei was called into Tehran's Evin prison for questioning, then released.
Hours later his wife and his brother-in-law were detained and a warrant was issued for Mostafaei's arrest.
The lawyer then took a fateful decision. Rather than surrender to the authorities he chose to flee. He headed for the Turkish border and exile.
After days of incarceration and legal wrangling in Istanbul, Mostafaei was offered residency by the Norwegian government. His wife was released from her solitary confinement in Evin prison.
So Mostafaei is now in a delicate position - desperate for his wife and seven-year-old daughter to be re-united with him in Norway, but determined not to be intimidated into silence by the regime in Tehran.
"I hope they will be able to travel here very soon," he says of his family.
TV 'lies'
Iran's state media has portrayed Mostafaei as a Western puppet, seeking personal profit and asylum in the West by manipulating the Mohammadi Ashtiani case.


The prisoner herself was filmed by Iranian state television, apparently acknowledging both an illicit relationship with her husband's cousin, and involvement in her husband's murder. She also condemned Mostafaei's decision to publicise her plight.
"He had no right to disgrace me," she said in the broadcast.
The lawyer himself responds carefully to his client's hesitant television appearance.
"Most of what was aired was mere lies. The programme makers had two objectives. One, to ruin and humiliate well-known individuals. Second, to justify the acts of those who abuse their power."
"I have not received even a penny on human rights-related issues. I worked sincerely. I discuss every issue with my clients. My aim is to save them."
Mostafaei says his long campaign for human rights and respect for the rule of law will continue, whether he's inside Iran or in exile.
But when I ask him what it has been like, separated from his wife and daughter, unsure of their fate, his calm exterior crumbles.
"When I talk about my daughter it's too much," he says, his cheeks shining with tears.
I ask him if he ever regrets his decision to leave Tehran. He shakes his head. "I risked my life to get out," he says, "because I was sure it was the right thing to do."
Given the international scrutiny now on Tehran's use of the death penalty in general and stoning in particular he claims to be confident that Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani will not now be executed.
"Sakineh Mohammadi will be rescued," he says, "I am sure about it. And her case will help others to be rescued too.

BBC News - Hardtalk - Lawyer says Iran stoning woman 'will not be executed'

 

[SpArK]

 

[Bang Galore]

Did you find this out from a person who was hanged ? It's just your opinion not fact.

And who exactly did you ask.Same rule applies.

I believe that execution by hanging or electric chair is much more brutal than stoning to death.

BTW you are wrong, a little common sense would have told you otherwise. While you would be correct in arguing that beheading as done in Saudi Arabia is no more brutal than any other form of execution, the same cannot be argued about stoning to death, something which by its very nature is not in the least instantaneous.

 

[Jigs]

Did you find this out from a person who was hanged ? It's just your opinion not fact.

Usually when a person is hanged their neck breaks(Just watch the videos). Though in Iran they hang you by crane where your chance to die slowly is much greater.


I am against all forms of capital punishment statistics show it has no effect on the crime rate anyway. Rehabilitation should be the first way of helping some of these people back into society and if they can't be helped then it is best to keep them jailed for the rest of their life.