53 US women on death row

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad criticizes Western hypocrisy, saying the West is hyping up the case of an Iranian woman whose sentence is not yet final, while 53 women are on the death row in the US.

The Iranian president was referring to the case of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, who has confessed to premeditated murder and adultery and is awaiting the finial decision on her sentence.

“Right now, 53 women in the US are on the death row, while the sentencing of Mrs. Mohammadi is yet to be finalize in Iran; however, [the West] has launched an anti-Iranian wave of media hype,” Ahmadinejad said late on Monday.

One of those on the death row is borderline mentally retarded Teresa Lewis, who is slated to be executed in the US state of Virginia by lethal injection on September 23 for plotting the killing of her husband and stepson in 2002.

“Unfortunately, the ‘war on terrorism’ motto has translated into the war on Muslim nations,” he was quoted by IRNA as saying in a meeting with Islamic figures and scholars in New York.

Ahmadinejad condemned NATO for killing innocent Afghans in a war launched under the pretext of finding a select few “allegedly behind the September 11 incident.”

“According to official estimate 3,000 people were killed in the 9/11 incident…but in Afghanistan at least 110,000 people have been killed so far and there is no telling how long the killing will continue,” said the Iranian president.

“In reality, they are not taking revenge on terrorists; they are taking revenge on Muslims,” Ahmadinejad concluded.