Petition to stop Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani's 'imminent execution'

An urgent petition has been launched to save the life of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, the Iranian woman sentenced to death by stoning, after reports yesterday that she was to be hanged for murder imminently.

The 43-year-old mother of two's sentence was suspended in July in the face of an international outcry. But the International Committee against Stoning said on its website that Mohammadi Ashtiani "is to be executed this Wednesday 3 November".

A spokeswoman for the German-based organisation said this morning that it now understood Ashtiani would not be executed today, but said Iran was still planning to go ahead with the execution, which could take place in the next few days.

"The International Committees against Stoning and Execution call on international bodies and the people of the world to come out in full force against the state-sponsored murder of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani," she said.

The global civic advocacy network Avaaz.org responded to the reports by launching an online petition urging people "to send an emergency message directly to the leaders of Turkey, Brazil and key UN nations who could sway Iran to halt the execution". The petition has already attracted more than 275,000 names and has seen "Ashtiani" become one of the most widely discussed subjects on Twitter.

The EU high representative, Lady Ashton, was said to be "deeply concerned" about the reports. "She demands that Iran halts the execution and converts her sentence," a spokesman said.

The UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office said it had been unable to confirm whether the reports of Mohammadi Ashtiani's imminent execution were true, but the minister for the Middle East, Alistair Burt, yesterday pressed the Iranian chargé d'affaires for an update.

The sentence of death by stoning was suspended after it was condemned by the US, Britain and international human rights groups. The outgoing Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, an ally of Iran, offered asylum to Mohammadi Ashtiani but was rebuffed by the Tehran regime.

Human Rights Watch says Mohammadi Ashtiani was first convicted in May 2006 of having an "illicit relationship" with two men following the death of her husband and was sentenced by a court to 99 lashes. She was later sentenced to death by stoning.

In August, Mohammadi Ashtiani was put on state-run TV where she "confessed" to adultery and involvement in the murder of her husband, but her lawyer, Houtan Kian, said she had been tortured beforehand.

At the end of August she was subjected to a mock execution, according to her 22-year-old son, Sajad Ghaderzadeh. The following month, she was allegedly given 99 lashes after a British newspaper ran a picture of an unveiled woman mistakenly identified as her, Kian said at the time.

Ghaderzadeh, who launched the international campaign to save his mother in June, was arrested in Iran last month with two German journalists who had interviewed him about his mother's case. The International Committee against Stoning is also demanding their release and that of Kian, who is also believed to have been detained.