German journalists held in Iran after 'stoning' interview

[maddezmom]

Source: The Guardian

Journalists were interviewing Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani's son and lawyer, who have also gone missing

Two German journalists are thought to have been arrested in Iran after conducting an interview with the son of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, the Iranian woman sentenced to death by stoning for adultery.

Mohammadi Ashtiani's son, Sajad, and her lawyer, Houtan Kian, are also believed to have been detained.

The journalists, a reporter and a photographer from Germany's Bild am Sonntag newspaper were interviewing Sajad Ghaderzadeh in the north-west city of Tabriz in East Azerbaijan Province of Iran when officials raided the office of the lawyer. Their names have not been released and it's not clear where they are being kept at the moment.

"I was on the phone with one of the journalists in the middle of their interview when apparently a group of officials raided the office and our communication was instantly interrupted," said Mina Ahadi of Iran's Committee Against Stoning (ICAS).

According to Ahadi, who was helping the journalists with translation by phone from Germany, the two arrived in Tehran almost five days ago for an interview with Mohammadi Ashtiani's son whose campaign to save her mother's life from stoning has taken the world's attention since July this year. Sajad has repeatedly been threatened by Iran's intelligence service not to talk to media.


Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/oct/11/german-journalists-detained-iran-stoning

[TexasObserver]

1. Stoning. What is wrong with the Iranian government?!

Oh, well. Texas has its death factory in Huntsville, a lovely college town, otherwise.

[happyslug]

2. Could it be the MURDER that was involved?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sakineh_Mohammadi_Ashtiani

Lets be honest, she is sentenced to die for Murder, when the Murder was done with the aid of her lover and both of them planned and killed her husband. There is NO question of her guilt of BOTH crimes.

I may NOT like the death Penalty, but it is legal in Iran. I may dislike the idea of Stoning, but again it is legal under Iranian law (Through rare, most people's family buy off the victim's family and some other form of punishment is agreed to by both families).

Lets remember Iran is NOT a western Country, it is a Mid-eastern Country and as such ANY crime is to be settled, within the law, but between the Families involved NOT the state. Her Husband's family is insisting on her death, and her family (and apparently her son) can NOT come up with any form of compromise with her husband's family. We may dislike that situation, but she is guilty of murder and I believe her husband's family is insisting on her death. How she dies may be compromised if her son can arrange some sort of deal with her husband's family, but sounds like he wants to west to intervene and spare her life, and that is NOT agreeable to her husband's family.

This is unlike Western Societies where any punishment is left to the state, and the state alone. This is a mid-eastern society and the families are directly involved in the punishment AND no punishment may be imposed if BOTH families make some other source of agreement (i.e. pay her husband's family enough money that they decide the money is a better punishment of her then executing her).

The Guardian has made a big thing of this situation, but constantly ignores (and fails to Mention) the MURDER that was involved. She is a Murderer and lets accept that fact and call her what she is a Murderer.

One more fact, Iran, while still having stoning on the books, have not stoned people in about Eight to Ten years, and its looks like Stoning, while still on the books, not a punishment Iran will carry out.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_punishment_in_Iran

Another things from that article, hanging, which is the way most people die in Iran, is not the quick drop so popular in the West (and by this I include Western Europe) over that last 200 years, but the older method of using the noose to choke the hanged person to death. Given that "Choice" how much worse can stoning be?

[TexasObserver]

3. Do I need to repeat myself? Stoning. What is wrong with the Iranian government?!

[happyslug]

5. As wikipedia points out, and others, no one has been stoned in the last few years

Some have been in the past but none since about 2006, which is a long time for the Country like Iran. Furthermore the Iranian Parliament is discussing abolishing Stoning, and while that debate in on going no one has been stoned.

[oberliner]

4. She was sentenced to death for adultery, not murder

She confessed to this "illicit relationship" only after being tortured. The relationship was said to have taken place after her husband's death.

She received 99 lashes in front of her son for this "crime" of engaging in "illicit relationships".

As a result of a different trial, she was re-tried for the same crime and sentenced to death by stoning for adultery while she was married.

Reporters are banned from covering the case (as evidenced from this story).

[happyslug]

6. Something else is up with this case,

As I said above, one of the characteristics of Islamic law is that the family offended can opt for another punishment if it thinks such a punishment is more fitting for the crime. One way to achieve that is for the victim's family to pay off the offended family. In Islamic Countries it is done every day. Unlike the West, it is NOT the Government that decides if a Murder lives or dies, the family of the victim also has a say (and via then the family of the murderer).

Something is no quite right. It may have to do with local politics (i.e. she is of a different nationality then Iranians), but for some reason her husband's family is NOT willing to accept any solution other then her being stoned. The delay in her case also seems to point in that direction.

Now her tribe is a border tribe, it is split between Iran and the Former Soviet State of Azerbaijan. This split in the tribe between two nation-states has lead to some conflict between Iran and Azerbaijan and that may be part of the problem (including the desire to avoid any foreign press involvement).

Just a comment, something is up here other then a simple Murder and Adultery. What it is I do not know, but this lady is a pawn in that game. She may have done it, and this took off for internal political purposes and now picked up the the Guardian (To attach readers). Something is up about this case other then what both parties are saying.

Just pointing out a Judge did find her guilty of the this crime. On its face we must accept that as a fair trial unless we have clear evidence it was not. Her statements is NOT clear evidence. We need more, but that is unlikely even if she was tortured.

[struggle4progress]

7. The Iranian judicial system is not very transparent, and this story has been reported in conflicting

versions. As I understand it, the woman was originally acquitted of the murder charge but might at some point have been convicted of "adultery" for alleged affairs after her husband's death. This explains the stoning sentence, which is not a traditional sentence for murder but has been for adultery. At some point after her acquittal, in the trial of the two men alleged to be her lovers and alleged to have killed her husband, her case was reopened and she was convicted during their trial on the basis of "judge's knowledge" -- an Iranian legal concept that allows the judge to convict based on personal impression without evidence. What this exact conviction was, has been disputed: it has been reported that the judge found her guilty of adultery but it was later reported the judge found her guilty of murder

Stoning is a barbaric punishment, and Iran continues to claim it has abolished it. A death sentence for adultery is certainly disproportionate, and of course convictions on "judge's knowledge" without evidence have no place in the 21st century. The inability of anyone to get a clear account of this situation, and the authorities' intimidation of people appalled by the situation, are also completely unacceptable