No ban on reporting Ashtiani case

A senior prosecutor in Iran says for foreign or domestic journalists there is no restriction on writing reports about an Iranian woman convicted of adultery and complicity in murder.

East Azerbaijan Prosecutor Hojjatoleslam Malek Ajdar Sharifi told IRNA on Monday that the case of Sakineh Mohammadi-Ashtiani, who is found guilty of committing adultery and colluding with another man to kill her husband, is being reviewed by senior ranks in the judiciary.

“The convict, her son, her lawyers and also the [East Azerbaijan] province’s Judiciary have provided information on this case many times,” Sharifi added.

“So far, different news agencies and channels have produced and released different reports on this case, and in my opinion there are no ambiguities regarding this matter,” IRNA quoted Sharifi as saying.

Commenting on the prospects of commutation of her sentence, the prosecutor said, “the possibility of this sentence being carried out is as much as [the possibility of it] not being carried out.”

Earlier last month, two German nationals, posing as reporters on tourist visas, contacted the Mohammadi-Ashtiani family and interviewed her son without obtaining the required press credentials from Iranian authorities.

The two were detained after a person close to the family alerted authorities of their suspicious behavior.

The Islamic Republic says the two detainees have admitted to breaking the law.

Iran has cited political motives behind the Western propaganda efforts regarding the legal ruling against Mohammadi-Ashtiani.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in late September said the West is deliberately hyping up the case of the convicted Iranian woman, while ignoring the fact that 53 women are on death row in the United States and awaiting execution.