Ashtiani case pending, but Iran official says she might be hanged

Dec 25, 2011, 13:28 GMT

Tehran - The case of Sakineh Mohammadi-Ashtiani was still pending but she might be hanged for her alleged involvement in her husband's murder, an Iranian judiciary official said Sunday.

Ashtiani, 43, was originally found guilty of adultery in 2006 and sentenced to death by stoning, in line with Islamic laws, by a court in Azerbaijan province in north-western Iran.

After a storm of international protests, Iran tried to play down the stoning sentence by saying that the main charge against her was her alleged role in helping her lover kill her husband.

Ashtiani was temporarily sentenced by a court in the provincial capital Tabriz to a 10-year jail term until her alleged role in the murder was clarified.

'The final decision should be made by the judiciary chief, Ayatollah (Sadeq) Amoli-Larijani, who is currently evaluating whether the sentence should be changed to execution by hanging,' Malek Ejdar-Sharifi, the head of the Azerbaijan judiciary, was quoted as saying by Fars news agency.

Given the international attention in the case, the final sentence would be decided by the judiciary headquarters in Tehran, and not in Tabriz.

Legal experts believe a death sentence would not be upheld, in order to avoid any negative political fallout.

In a press conference by the judiciary in January for foreign journalists in Tabriz, Ashtiani 'confessed' to being an accomplice in the murder of her husband by her lover.

Her son claimed at the same press conference that his mother was involved in his father's killing, but asked that she be spared execution.