Two cases which need urgent action.

 Zeynab Jalalian faces Danger of Execution!

Sakineh Mohammedi Ashtiani in danger of being stoned to death!

1- Iran’s Supreme Court approved the death sentence by execution of Zeynab Jalalian in November 2009.  The sentence has been submitted to the implementation office and is scheduled to be carried out.  The exact date and time when the sentence will be implemented is unclear, but it may take place in a matter of hours or days. Khalil Bahramian, a prominent lawyer, who has represented others sentenced to death, and who efforts to represent Zeynab by the courts was rejected, explained in news reports yesterday that Zeynab faces imminent execution and may be hanged in only a few hours.

Zeynab Jalalian, from Maku, a town in the north-west of Iran, was sentenced to death for “Enmity against God” in January 2009 by the Kermanshah Revolutionary Court. Before that, she had spent eight months in a Ministry of Intelligence detention facility, during which time her family had no information concerning her fate. She is reported not to have been granted access to a lawyer during her trial, which she said lasted only a few minutes. Zeynab Jalalian’s death sentence was confirmed by the Supreme Court on 26 November 2009.

 In early March 2010, Zeynab Jalalian was moved from Kermanshah Prison to an unknown location, possibly a detention facility of the Ministry of Intelligence. After several weeks, in late March 2010, she was transferred to Section 209 of Evin Prison in Tehran

2- Sakineh Mohammedi Ashtiani Sakineh Mohameddi Ashtiani a prisoner at one of Tabriz prisons in the north-west Iran is on the verge of being stoned to death. In 2006 she confessed to being the lover to the two men who murdered her husband. She later withdrew her statement in front of the judge and told that it was taken under special circumstances. Despite that she was sentenced to 99 lashes which she received and was released from prison. She was once again detained and tried and sentenced to stoning to death for the same alleged crime.

In an interview with Rooz online, her lawyer, Mohammed Mostafaie reiterated that there are many flaws in her case. Two out of five judges have shown doubt in the case while the verdict must be unanimous. Besides, according to the Islamic Shariat law, 4 unbiased witnesses must testify to the case of adultery who in this case there are non. Sakineh has pleaded for a pardon on two occasions and has been refused. She does not have a plaintiff and her two children have testified to their mother’s innocence but that has all been ignored. Mr Mostafaie affirms that in some cities the judges’ decisions are biased due to cultural beliefs. The fact that in her file Sakineh has confessed to having out of marriage relations (though she has taken back her statement) plays a major role in the judgement.

Unable to save their mother, children of Sakineh Ashtiani, Farideh and Sadjad urge the world to save their mother from being stonned to death. In an emotional letter which was published on the Persian sites the children say that they have been living without their mother for the past 5 years and in constant fear. “Is the world so cruel to watch a castostroph happen and pass by it unmoved and indifferent?” Farideh and Sadjad Ashtiani say that they have been living with the pain of having their mother in prison and waiting for the catastroph of her being stoned to death; a word which they so frightened to spell out. “ Our mother is in danger of being killed and she expects the world to save her. Today, all the roads are closed to us and our mother’s lawyer says she is in danger of being killed anyday. We plead with you people where ever in the world you are, with whatever colour or religion, you Iranians and those who feel pain and suffering the way we feel, those who have lost some one dear to them; help us to save our mother. We plead with you write letters to the Iranian authorities to save our morther from this dreadful nightmare. Our mother should not be murdred. She does not have a plaintiff, she should not be killed. Please plead with the authorities to set her free so that she comes back to her children.”Farideh & Sadjad Ashtiani