Kobra Rahmanpour’s execution put on hold

Iran Press News: The Islamic regime’s judiciary has once again suspended the execution of Kobra Rahmanpour. Rahmanpour was arrested on Nov. 5, 2000, for killing her mother-in-law with a knife. Despite a plea that she was acting in self-defense and was protecting herself against the repeated and vicious attacks by her husband's mother, she was nonetheless sentenced to death by branch 1608 of Tehran's criminal court in January 2002. Her case met with protests from the international community though in January 2003 the death sentence was upheld by the Supreme Court of the Islamic regime.

Kobra Rahmanpour's death sentence was temporarily stayed by Ayatollah Shahroudi, the head of the Islamic regime's Judiciary in February 2004; Sharoudi issued a letter of instructions on the stay of the execution to allow adequate time to obtain the consent of the heirs to forego their right to retribution in kind. The letter also stated that all legal proceedings on the case had been completed, and therefore the sentence can only be commuted if the victim's heirs forgo their right to retribution and ask instead for the payment of blood money, which in Islamic statutes is referred to as a "Diyeh".

So far, all efforts to obtain the deceased's family consent have failed. Rahmanpour is one of the victims of disastrous social conditions Iran.

"The order of execution has not been signed by Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi, the head of the Islamic Republic’s judiciary," says Abdol-Samad Khorramshahi, Rahmanpour’s defense attorney. He added: “The execution has been postponed twice but if Rahmanpour's in-laws refuse to pardon her it will be inevitable, we request international intervention in this matter. The family of the deceased hold the keys to Kobra's cell and it is first imperative for Kobra’s sister-in-law to be convinced that Kobra was not an executionar but a victim; that family must be persuade to forgive her. Kobra has spent 6 years shut away in a cell while waiting to be hanged; it isn't easy and as such she has incurred massive psychological damage. She is extremely depressed and she could get worse if she is not released and returned to her family."