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Lawmaker Says Iranian Woman's Death Sentence Suspended

January 17, 2011

An Iranian lawmaker says the death sentence of an Iranian woman at the center of an international outcry over stoning has been suspended.

Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani's sentence to be stoned for adultery had been suspended last year, but she still had faced death by hanging for the murder of her husband.

Iran's ISNA news agency today quoted a letter from the head of parliament's human rights committee, Zohreh Elahian, to Brazilian President Dilma Rouseff in which she said Ashtiani's death sentence had been suspended due to a plea by Ashtiani's family.

It was not immediately clear why the letter came from a lawmaker and not from the judiciary or the presidential office.

Rouseff's predecessor, former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, had offered Ashtiani asylum, an offer rejected by Iran.

compiled from agency reports

Source: http://www.rferl.org/content/ashtiani_stoning_death_iran/2278512.html

Copyright (c) 2011. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.