JUBILANT CAMPAIGNERS have claimed victory in the case of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, the Iranian woman whose sentence of death by stoning for adultery triggered an international outcry.
Images from Iran’s state-run Press TV showed her meeting her son Sajjad at her house in Osku in northwest Iran, boosting supporters’ hopes that she had been freed.
The move came just weeks after Iran signalled for the first time that it might spare the life of Mohammadi Ashtiani (43), a mother of two who has been in Tabriz prison since 2006 and faced execution by stoning for “having an illicit relationship outside marriage”. Her release is a triumph for an intensive international campaign launched by her son Sajad Ghaderzadeh and first reported by the Guardian in early July. Sajad, her lawyer Houtan Kian and two German journalists, who were arrested after trying to interview her, have also been freed.
The extraordinary case brought an unwelcome focus on human rights in Iran at a time when the Islamic regime was seeking to return to normal after the unrest following Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s victory in a disputed presidential election in June 2009.
Ecstatic campaigners hailed the news. “This is the happiest day in my life,” said Mina Ahadi of the International Committee against Stoning. “I’m very happy for her son, Sajad, who fought single-handedly and bravely in Iran to defend his mother and tell the world that she is innocent. I’m sure that this day will be written in Iranian history books, if not the world’s, as a day of victory for human rights campaigners.”
International pressure over Mohammadi Ashtiani’s fate began with campaigning on social networking sites and was later taken up by mainstream media as protest rallies were held in London, Rome and Washington, with support from Amnesty and other human rights groups, as well as a star-studded cast of celebrities.
Brazil’s president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, offered to give Mohammadi Ashtiani asylum, while US secretary of state Hillary Clinton urged Tehran to respect the fundamental freedoms of its citizens. – (Guardian service)