Iran slams hype over woman case

Iran’s ambassador to Italy says Western countries use the case of an Iranian woman convicted of adultery and complicity in murder as a political tool.

“Certain Western countries’ political pressure regarding this issue is nothing but using human rights as an instrument for achieving political objectives,” Mohammad-Ali Hosseini said on Thursday.

Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani was found guilty of adultery and murdering her husband in collusion with another man, Isa Taheri.

Hosseini criticized the Western media’s “hype” about the case while the final verdict has not been issued yet, and said the West’s double standards could be seen in a similar case, IRNA reported.

“Teresa Lewis, [an American woman diagnosed with borderline mental retardation] was executed in the US because of a similar crime,” Hosseini said.

Lewis was charged with hiring two men, Matthew Shallenberger and Rodney Fuller, to kill her husband and stepson in 2002, so that she could collect $350,000 of life insurance.

The two accomplices received life sentences, but the 40-year-old Lewis was sentenced to death.