AJC Urges International Community to Prevent Execution of Iranian Woman

News provided by

Nov 02, 2010, 08:49 ET

NEW YORK, Nov. 2, 2010 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The American Jewish Committee called on the international community to take urgent steps to prevent Iran's execution of a woman charged with adultery. The execution is widely reported to be planned for tomorrow, November 3.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20100816/AJCLOGO )

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20100816/AJCLOGO )

Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani was sentenced to death in 2007 for the crimes of adultery and murder. Her guilty plea, which she has since recanted, was the result of torture by the Iranian authorities. Sakineh now faces execution either by stoning or by hanging.

"We may be only hours away from the murder of an Iranian citizen by her own government," said AJC Executive Director David Harris. "We join with the US Administration, with prominent opinion formers and human rights groups, with the tens of thousands of ordinary people around the world moved by this case, in demanding that the Iranian regime abandon this barbaric execution plan."

Senior American leaders, including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, have regularly raised Sakineh's case, while the former President of Brazil, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, offered her amnesty following a meeting with the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Iran's systematic abuse of human rights includes sustained discrimination against women, who face the ultimate punishment of stoning for such "crimes" as adultery. Despite this record, the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women elected Iran as a member in April 2010.