Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani has been spared temporarily but she may still be executed by the Iranian government.


As Sarah Walters and I have wrote about last week (here and here), Ashtiani was convicted of adultery based on a confession she gave after receiving 90 lashes and after being questioned in a language she doesn’t speak (she speaks Turkish, not Farsi).  Despite later retracting her confession, she was convicted and sentenced to death by stoning.


Due to international outcry (largely by the British government and various human rights groups), on Friday, Iran’s judiciary chief temporarily halted the sentence but said ominously, “…the verdict will be carried out regardless of Western media propaganda.”


Ashtiani deserves our attention and the continued call for her release.


And let us not forget, according to Amnesty International, at least ten other people, including seven women, have been given the death sentence of stoning in Iran.