Document - Iran: Woman sentenced to stoning still risks death: Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani: Further information | Amnesty International

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woman sentenced to stoning still risks death

Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, a 43-year-old mother of two, is held on death row in Tabriz Prison, north-west Iran. On 8 July 2010, the Iranian Embassy in London announced that she would not be stoned to death, but she still could be executed, by stoning or other means.

Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani was convicted in May 2006 of having an “illicit relationship” with two men and received 99 lashes as her sentence. Despite this, she was then also convicted of “adultery while being married", which she has denied, and sentenced to death by stoning.

Following an international outcry in recent weeks against her possible execution, the Iranian Embassy in London issued a statement on 8 July 2010 which said that Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani would not be executed by stoning. However, her precise legal status is unclear as her lawyer has not received any official communication regarding commutation of her death sentence.

During her trial, Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani retracted a “confession” that she had made during her pre-trial interrogation, alleging that she had been forced to make it under duress, and denied the charge of adultery. Two of the five judges found her not guilty, noting that she had already been flogged and adding that they did not find the necessary proof of adultery in the case against her. However, the three other judges, including the presiding judge, found her guilty on the basis of “the knowledge of the judge”, a provision in Iranian law that allows judges to make their own subjective and possibly arbitrary determination whether an accused person is guilty even in the absence of clear or conclusive evidence. Having been convicted by a majority of the five judges, Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani was sentenced to death by stoning.

A petition Free Sakineh being run by a group that managed to get a death penalty overturned in the case of a 17 year girl Nazanin (Mahabad) Fatehi in Iran, charged with murder after stabbing a guy who was trying to rape her and her 15 year old niece.

Nazanin Fatehi - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Hopefully another innocent life can be saved, and stop this “the knowledge of the judge” tossing a coin to decide life and death when there is no evidence!!