Thursday
Aug122010
Iran: Adultery, Stoning, and Sakineh's TV "Confession"
Thursday, August 12, 2010 at 10:31 
So, after weeks of the drama involving Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, the 43-year-old woman sentenced to death for adultery and then murder, and her lawyer, Mohammad Mostafaei, forced to flee Iran, we have Tehran's attempt at a dramatic twist....Put Ashtiani on TV and have her "confess".
Speaking in Azeri, Ashtiani told an interviewer that she was an accomplice to the murder of her husband and that she had an extramarital relationship with her husband's cousin.
Her lawyer, Houtan Kian, told The Guardian of London that Ashtiani was tortured for two days before the interview was recorded in Tabriz prison, where she has been held since 2006: "She was severely beaten up and tortured until she accepted to appear in front of camera. Her 22-year-old son, Sajad and her 17-year-old daughter Saeedeh are completely traumatised by watching this programme."
Mostafaei, who represented Ashtiani until authorities tried to detain him and imprisoned his wife and brother-in-law, told CNN last month that Ashtiani had "confessed" to the crime after being given 99 lashes. He said she later recanted that confession.
Wednesday's interview, aired on the high-profile programme "20:30", was designed to condemn not only Ashtiani but also Mostafaei. The prisoner claimed she had never met him: "I tell Mostafaei: How dare you use my name, lie in my name, say things about me that are not true."
In the "confession", Ashtiani said she knew about the plot to kill her husband, proposed by her alleged lover, but did not take it seriously:
"When he said we should kill my husband, I couldn't even believe him or that my husband would die. I thought he was joking, that he had lost his mind."
The host of the programme speculated that Western news media have highlighted Ashtiani's case to press for the release of three Americans hikers --- Sarah Shourd, Shane Bauer, and Josh Fattal --- detained more than a year ago when they allegedly walked across the Iraqi border into Iran.
Reader Comments (16)
See also CNN's article on the same (with additional details):
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/meast/08/11/iran.stoning/#fbid=xqsIaLJdkIh&wom=false" rel="nofollow">http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/meast/08/11/i...
Behdad Bordbar interviews Dr Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam about the case of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani. Dr Amiry- Moghadam is a Norwegian-Iranian neuroscientist and human rights activist. He is the spokesman of Iran Human Rights, an NGO organization based in Oslo:
http://www.payvand.com/news/10/aug/1112.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.payvand.com/news/10/aug/1112.html
Call me paranoid... but are we sure it was her? "With her face blurred and her words voiced over to translate them into Farsi from local dialect, it was not immediately possible to independently verify the woman's identity." (From the Reuters story). Or could this have been staged, to get Brazil of their back? Afterall, only yesterday "Brazil's Foreign Minister Celso Amorim urged Iran to make a "humanitarian gesture" towards the woman, stressing it would be good for the image of the Islamic republic."
http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/-/world/7754318/iran-stoning-woman-admits-murder-conspiracy/" rel="nofollow">http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/-/world/7754318/iran...
I guess it *was* her (sigh, tear): http://www.twitlonger.com/show/3317lp" rel="nofollow">http://www.twitlonger.com/show/3317lp
RFE/RL has a report on this that includes a link to the state television broadcast, with Ashtiani appearing from around the 10:30 mark.
http://www.rferl.org/content/Woman_Stoning_Case_Confesses_Iran_TV/2125828.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.rferl.org/content/Woman_Stoning_Case...
Thanks Catherine, I had been looking for that for some time... Disgusting, repulsive journalism! But: " '20:30' is a program that is controlled by the intelligence services in Iran," Mostafaei told CNN in an interview in Oslo, Norway, where he has been granted asylum after fleeing Iran.
Witteke
She was tortured before her statement; under torture, human being could say anything; poor woman !
Here you are the link; I heard it one hour ago in VOA as well :
Iran stoning woman tortured to confess on TV: lawyer
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100812/wl_mideast_afp/iranexecutionstoning_20100812172608" rel="nofollow">http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100812/wl_mideast...
Thanks Ange, found a lot on this later myself... But I just wanted to be careful and sure: a journalists' malformation hazard :-)
More Sharia justice. This is what the Archbishop of Canterbury wants in Britain?
Amnesty and U.K. condemn Iranian woman's TV "confession"
ttp://www.canada.com/entertainment/Amnesty+condemn+Iranian+woman+confession/3389728/story.html
I am so afraid for her current lawyer, I hope he will stay safe without being imprisonned and tortured in turn. He is really brave , a nice man .
Ashtiani outrage spurs Iran to commute stoning sentences to hanging
Tehran carries out series of judicial reviews but lawyer fears women who have not attracted media attention will be executed
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/aug/12/iran-stoning-sentences-commuted-ashtiani" rel="nofollow">http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/aug/12/ira...
An Iranian human-rights activist dismissed the whole show as an attempt to divert attention from the Islamic Republic's human rights record.
"The confession on TV aimed to reduce the important issue of human rights in Iran to sexual affairs and adultery and persuade public opinion that supporters of human rights, including the defense lawyer, are in fact supporters of perverts and killers and not decent people," Hamid B, told Babylon & Beyond.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/babylonbeyond/2010/08/iran-woman-sentenced-to-stoning-confesses-to-adultery-criticizes-her-lawyer-on-state-tv.html" rel="nofollow">http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/babylonbeyond/2...
While still reeling from the extremes of cruelty and injustice of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani's case, we can now descend even further into the depths of human depravity in the case of fellow prisoner Maryam Ghorbanzadeh, also (originally) condemned to death by stoning:
Life of Maryam Ghorbanzadeh in Danger, Forced Abortion at Six Months http://persian2english.com/?p=13511" rel="nofollow">http://persian2english.com/?p=13511
Meanwhile, back in the good old USA:
A US military judge has ruled that confessions obtained by threatening the subject with rape are admissible in court.
The decision, coming late Monday afternoon, supports the prosecution’s argument that threats of gang rape and alleged abuse in one interrogation do not taint confessions in another.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/khadrs-confessions-can-be-used-in-trial-judge-rules/article1666620/" rel="nofollow">http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/khadr...