Iran television broadcast the ‘confessions’ of Azerbaijani-origin Sakine Muhammedi Aştiyani, who stands trial for killing her husband. Stating that the interview with ‘confessions’ was made after 2-days torture, Sakine’s lawyer remarked that she could be executed at any time.
Azerbaijani-origin Sakine Muhammedi Aştiyani was sentenced to stone to death but her penalty was suspended due to international pressures. At the interview in Tebriz Jail, where she has been imprisoned for 4 years, Astiyani confessed her aid and abet in her husband’s murder and her marital infidelity with her cousin.
FORCED TO CONFESSION UNDER TORTURE
Aştiyani’s lawyer Houtan Kian, however, said that the televised confessions were taken by force under torture. Speaking to Guardian newspaper, Kian recorded that 43-year old and mother of two children Aştiyani was kept under torture for 2 days before the interview. Kian spoke as follows; “She was exposed to heavy corporal punishment and torture before she accepted to go on cameras. Her 22 yer-old son Sajad and 17 year-old Saeedeh go through severe trauma after watching the television program.”
Lawyer Kian stated their anxiety that Iranian authorities will be acting quickly to execute her after the so-called confessions.
Observers remarked that Aştiyani’s faulting western media for interfering in her private life is a sign of the pressure for the interview. At her statement to Guardian newspaper via an intermediary last week, Aştiyani recorded that Iranian authorities are publishing lie news about the accusations to misdirect the media in order to find a way of executing her secretly. The stone to death penalty for Aştiyani was suspended due to international pressures an turned to death sentence last month.
CONDEMNATION FROM AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL DUE TO ‘SO-CALLED CONFESSIONS’
Condemning the ‘so called confessions’ of Iran television with both barrels, Amnesty International stated that the independence of Iran judicial system is shattered with the publish of the interview. Drewery Dyke from Iran desk of Amnesty International recorded; “Iran is making up crimes. This is an unacceptable application throwing up to justice.”
SENTENCED TO STONE TO DEATH WITH ADULTERY ACCUSATION
Arrested for murdering her husband in 2006, during the questioning Sakine Muhammedi Aştiyani had stated that two people named Nasır and Seyid Ali, who killed her husband, made non-consensual sexual intercourse with her by force. In May 2006, Aşiyani was sentenced to 99 times flogging on charges of “adultery” by 101. Osko Criminal Court in Azerbaijan.
4 months after paying her penalty and being affranchised, Aştiyani was arbitrarily sentenced to stone to death by Azerbaijan 6. Criminal Court on charges of ‘ committing adultery’ .
THE PENALTY CAUSED INTERNATIONAL REACTIONS
The stone to death penalty of Aştiyani had received strong reactions in international public opinion. While Washington and London defined the punishment as a torture application, newspaper Times started a campaign for the cancellation of the penalty and published an open letter signed by politicians and artists including Ex- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, three British Ex-Foreign Affairs Ministers, East Timor President Jose Ramos-Horta,Nobel Peace Prize winners, famous American actors Robert de Niro and Robert Redford, French actress Juliette Binoche and French philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy.
ANF / NEWS DESK
ANF NEWS AGENCY
