Iranian condemned to stoning also faces a flogging

Published on Monday 6 September 2010 17:32

An Iranian woman who was sentenced to death by stoning for adultery is now facing a new punishment of 99 lashes after a picture was published of an unveiled woman mistakenly identified as her, the woman's son said yesterday.

There was no official confirmation of the new sentence. The son, Sajjad Qaderzadeh, 22, said he did not know whether the new lashing sentence had been carried out yet, but heard about it from a prisoner who had recently left the Tabriz prison where his mother is being held.

The lawyer who once represented Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani in Iran said from Paris that the situation was not clear.

"Publishing the photo provided a judge an excuse to sentence my poor mother to 99 lashes on the charge of taking a picture unveiled," Mr Qaderzadeh said.

Ashtiani was convicted in 2006 of having an "illicit relationship" with two men after the death of her husband a year earlier and was sentenced by a court back then to 99 lashes. Later that year, she was also convicted of adultery and sentenced to stoning, even though she retracted a confession that she claims was made under duress.