Iran rejects Brazil's second asylum offer to condemned woman

Aug 17, 2010, 12:54 GMT

   Tehran - Iran on Tuesday rejected for a second time the Brazilian government's offer of asylum to an Iranian woman on death row.

   Brazil's ambassador in Tehran last week officially delivered President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's offer to grant asylum to Sakineh Mohammadi-Ashtiani, sentenced to death by stoning for adultery and for the murder of her husband.

   'We are quite aware of the humanitarian aspect of the Brazilian offer but this is a murder case which has to be dealt with solely by the Iranian judiciary,' Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast told reporters in Tehran.

   Lula has friendly ties with Tehran and has repeatedly spoken against sanctions against Iran for its nuclear programme. His initial offer of asylum for Mohammadi-Ashtiani was rejected two weeks ago.

   The 43-year-old has been convicted of adultery and of killing her husband in 2006, Iran's judiciary said.

   In an interview last week with state television, an Iranian woman, claiming to be Mohammadi-Ashtiani but whose face was blurred, confirmed the version of her crimes put forward by the Iranian judiciary.

   Mehmanparast said that the support for the woman was the latest Western plot after the world powers failed to stop Iran from pursuing its legitimate nuclear rights.

   He said that Iran would also never ask another country to release a convicted murderer. 'No independent country would give another the right to interfere in its internal affairs, especially not in judiciary affairs and particularly not in a murder case,' he said.