The case of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani had drawn worldwide attention. Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi said the Catholic church opposes the death penalty in general and views stoning as particularly brutal, The Associated Press reported.
In another development in the case, several news agencies confirmed that Ashtiani has been sentenced to 99 lashes in an apparent case of mistaken identity. Her photo has appeared several times in The Times newspaper of London, which first catapulted her case into global headlines. The publicity forced Iran to retract her stoning sentence, but fears remain that she might still be put to death.
Gregorio Borgia, AP
A demonstrator holds a portrait of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani during a protest outside the Iranian embassy in Rome on Thursday.
Last weekend, The Times published a different photo purportedly of 43-year-old Ashtiani without a headscarf – a mandatory accessory for women under Iran's strict Islamic laws. Iran subsequently added 99 lashes to Ashtiani's sentence, accusing her of "spreading corruption and indecency," according to other inmates who've recently left the Tabriz prison where Ashtiani is being held. Those reports were confirmed by the woman's son, and picked up by several news agencies.
But The Times now says that it made a mistake, and the photo it published on Aug. 28 wasn't of Ashtiani but of another woman instead. The paper said it received the photos from Ashtiani's lawyer, who in turn said he received them from her son – a charge the son denies.
Regardless of how the mistake was made, the lashings could be a sign Iran is pushing back against the international outcry over Ashtiani's jailing and death sentence, and a message that the embattled woman herself will be punished further because of the publicity.
Sponsored Links
Her son, Sajad Ghaderzadeh, told The Observer newspaper that Iran is using the mistaken photo as "an excuse to increase their harassment of our mother." He said the 99 lashes haven't yet been administered, and that he and Ashtiani's lawyer are asking for an appeal. But Ghaderzadeh told the paper they've "been completely cut off from her" and that Iran is refusing Ashtiani contact with her lawyer or family. The mother of two has already endured another flogging in prison for having an "illicit relationship" outside marriage, even though she was a widow at the time of the alleged affair. That sentence was imposed by a court investigating her husband's 2005 murder, which convicted Ashtiani of adultery in the period when he was alive as well, citing the "judge's knowledge" but little evidence. Ashtiani has been in prison in the northwestern city of Tabriz since 2006.
Last month, Iranian TV aired what it said was a confession from Ashtiani, about involvement in her husband's murder. But her family says she has retracted the statements, which were allegedly made under duress.
The case has drawn worldwide attention after The Times publicized blogs by her lawyer, Mohammad Mostafaei, who wrote that his client was "on the threshold of stoning" earlier this spring. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch also got involved, as did British Foreign Secretary William Hague, U.S. Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., and dozens of other politicians and celebrities. Even Lindsay Lohan joined the cause, posting a Newsweek article about Ashtiani on her Twitter feed.