Sentence is suspended in stoning case

Iranian authorities have suspended the execution by stoning of a woman convicted of adultery, the foreign ministry said yesterday, after weeks of condemnation around the world.

"The verdict regarding the extramarital affairs has stopped and it's being reviewed," foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said.

The move came a day after European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso called the stoning sentence facing Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani as "barbaric beyond words", the latest in a string of criticisms by foreign powers.

She was convicted of adultery - a capital crime in the Islamic Republic - in 2006. She also has been charged with involvement in her husband's murder.

Mr Mehmanparast said the murder charge was "being investigated for the final verdict to be issued". Adultery is the only crime which carries the penalty of death by stoning under Sharia law, adopted in Iran after the 1979 Islamic revolution.

Those sentenced to death in Iran face hanging. The lawyer said Ashtiani might receive 15 years' jail if convicted of being an accomplice to murder.