Son of Iran stoning woman wants sentence commuted

TABRIZ, Iran (AP) — The son of an Iranian woman, whose death sentence by stoning for adultery sparked world outrage, demanded Saturday that his mother's verdict be commuted.

In his first public meeting with journalists, Sajjad Qaderzadeh told reporters in the northwest city of Tabriz that he had been freed on Dec. 12 after posting a $40,000 bail and now wants to devote his life to saving his mother.

"We lost our father and we don't want to lose our mother. We demand that her verdict be commuted," Qaderzadeh told reporters.

He was originally arrested in October after speaking with two German journalists about his mother's case. The Germans were also arrested and remain in custody.

Local officials who organized Saturday's interview had originally told journalists they would meet his mother Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani as well, but then they said the proper procedures had not been followed to give her leave from prison. All the people connected to the case have been in prison in Tabriz.

Several unidentified people, apparently local officials and possibly plainclothes security officers, were present during the interview, which was Qaderzadeh's first with the international press.

It is not clear whether he was ever formally charged, but he said he was arrested because the German journalists broke the law by entering the country on tourist visas and then reporting.

Ashtiani was convicted of adultery in 2006 after the murder of her husband and sentenced to death by stoning. In the face of international outrage the sentence has been suspended and is under review by the Supreme Court.

She was later convicted of being an accessory to her husband's murder and sentenced to 10 years in prison, said her son.

Qaderzadeh told journalists that he didn't doubt his mother was guilty, but he asked that her stoning sentence be commuted.

"I do not think that my mother is innocent. She is certainly guilty," he said. "However, the decision has to be made by our country's officials. They may change the stoning sentence to some other verdict."

Qaderzadeh said it was not fair that his mother was in jail but that the man who murdered his father, Isa Taheri, was free.

"The question is why Taheri is free? ... I'll get Taheri to face justice even if I need to become a lawyer or memorize the book of law," he said.

Stoning was widely imposed in the years following the 1979 Islamic revolution, and even though Iran's judiciary still regularly hands down such sentences, they are often converted to other punishments.

The last known stoning was carried out in 2007, although the government rarely confirms that such punishments have been meted out.

Under Islamic rulings, a man is usually buried up to his waist, while a woman is buried up to her chest with her hands also buried. Those carrying out the verdict then throw stones until the condemned dies.