Stoning case still under investigation: Ahmadinejad

The case of Sakineh Mohammadi-Ashtiani, who has been sentenced to die by stoning on charges of adultery, has sparked international outrage and calls from the United States and Europe for her execution to be called off.

“This case is still under investigation. Iran’s investigative agencies are very competent and they will take the right decision on this matter,” Ahmadinejad told a press conference in the Azerbaijani capital Baku.

Asked about international appeals for her sentence to be commuted, Ahmadinejad said: “I want to make my own appeal. In the United States there are 53 women condemned to death. Why is the whole world not asking them to pardon these women? We handed to them a list of these women but the media is in their hands and this is why they are not covering this question.”

Mohammadi-Ashtiani was sentenced to death by two different courts in the northwestern city of Tabriz in separate trials in 2006.

A sentence to hang for her involvement in the murder of her husband was commuted to a 10-year jail term by an appeals court in 2007.

But a second sentence, to die by stoning, was on a charge of adultery levelled over several relationships, notably with the man convicted of her husband’s murder. That was upheld by another appeals court the same year.

Reports early this month that her execution was imminent sparked widespread international condemnation.