French Foreign Minister Pledges To Help Iranian Woman Sentenced To Death By Stoning

[Turborama]

Source: RTT News

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said Monday that he was prepared to do everything possible to save an Iranian woman sentenced to death by stoning on an adultery conviction, stressing that her case has become a "personal cause" for him.

Kounchner made the remarks while talking to reporters in Paris after a meeting with Mohammad Mostafei, one of the lawyers of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani-- the Iranian woman who was sentenced to death by stoning in July.

"I'm ready to do anything to save her," Bernard Kouchner told reporters in Paris on Monday after his meeting with Mostafei. "If I must go to Tehran to save her, I'll go to Tehran."

His remarks came days after Ashtiani's son said last week that an Iranian judge had sentenced his mother to an additional punishment of 99 lashes after a British newspaper published a photograph of a woman without a traditional head covering, claiming that it was Ashtiani.

Read more: http://www.rttnews.com/Content/GeneralNews.aspx?Id=1410591&SM=1

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Lawyer says Iranian woman could be stoned soon

By NASSER KARIMI (AP) – 37 minutes ago

TEHRAN, Iran — The lawyer for an Iranian woman sentenced to be stoned on an adultery conviction said Monday that he and her children are worried the delayed execution could be carried out soon with the end of a moratorium on death sentences for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

In an unusual turn in the case, the lawyer also confirmed that Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani was lashed 99 times last week in a separate punishment meted out because a British newspaper ran a picture of an unveiled woman mistakenly identified as her. Under Iran's clerical rule, women must cover their hair in public.

With the end of Ramadan this week, the mother of two could be executed "any moment," said her lawyer, Javid Houtan Kian.

The sentence was put on hold in July after an international outcry over the brutality of the punishment, and it is now being reviewed by Iran's supreme court.

Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jHbiuIayXy7ZNeDmGw9sfU7PndXAD9I2K72G0

[gerenimox]

1. The French should stop opressing their Gypsy and muslim minorities first

[iandhr]

2. I hope you are not

suggesting that there is a moral equivalent between France and Iran.

Stoning someone to death is a barbaric act.

[gerenimox]

5. in general death penalty is a barbaric medieval act

and Iran is not the only country that has death penalty.

as for France helping the Iranian woman, that`s just a cheap political move by a fascist and nazist country which is trying to get rid of its non-christian minorities.

[Mass]

12. Facist and nazist country? Take a deep breath and look at this country first.

Is there a lot of difference between the expulsion of undocumented gipsy people and what many of the politicians on this country would do to undocumented immigrants and muslim minorities.

Sarkozy is somebody trying to get some popularity (his is extremely low and makes Obama's look high) by some cheap demagoguery and all he did was to get 100000 in the streets against him.

[donheld]

3. I hope something can be done for this poor woman but

it makes me wonder how many others there are we don't hear about.

[iandhr]

4. good point

[OhioChick]

6. A very eye-opening movie to watch...

If you haven't seen it already.

"The Stoning of Soraya M."

Warning: Very emotional and graphic movie.

[roxiejules]

13. Excellent movie....

[gerenimox]

8. I agree, there are many others that you won`t hear about

I`m sure you have never heard of the women burnt to death by the christians in Kenya for "witchcraft". Apparently, the lives of these women are not important enough to make the news in the christian media.

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=dae_1236854361

[roxiejules]

11. Sounds like witch-hunting is not confined to one religion

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/gambia-gripped-by-fear-as-leader-scours-country-in-search-of-witches-1648414.html

A state-sponsored witch-hunt has begun in Gambia where as many as 1,000 people have been kidnapped from their villages and taken to "secret detention centres" then stripped, beaten and poisoned.

On May 21, 2009, The New York Times reported that the alleged witch-hunting campaign had been sparked by the Gambia's President Yahya Jammeh (Muslim).

[Rhiannon12866]

9. That was my first thought, too... K&R.

;(

[awoke_in_2003]

7. Ah, how nice...

that they suspend stonings until holy holidays like Ramadan are over :sarcasm:

[roxiejules]

10. Has CAIR condemned the stoning?

I tried to find a press release from them, but didn't find one. Does anyone know if they came out against the stoning?