A campaign calling for a halt to the execution of
Reyhaneh Jabbari was launched on Facebook on
Monday
An Iranian woman due to be put to death for
killing a man she said was trying to sexually
abuse her is reported to have had her execution
postponed.
Officials said on Monday that Reyhaneh Jabbari,
26, had been transferred to a prison west of
Tehran to be hanged.
But activists claimed on Tuesday that an online
campaign had persuaded the state to give her a
10-day reprieve.
The human rights group Amnesty International
said she was convicted after a deeply flawed
investigation.
Ms Jabbari was arrested in 2007 for the murder of
Morteza Abdolali Sarbandi, a former employee of
Iran's Ministry of Intelligence.
She was placed in solitary confinement for two
months, where she reportedly did not have access
to a lawyer or her family, and was sentenced to
death by a criminal court in Tehran in 2009.
Amnesty said that although Ms Jabbari admitted to
stabbing Mr Abdolali Sarbandi once in the back,
she alleged that there was someone else in the
house who actually killed him.
Her claim is believed to have never been properly
investigated.
Protest
The authorities appeared to be pressing ahead with
the execution on Monday, when they confirmed
that Ms Jabbari had been transferred to Rajaishahr
prison and would be hanged.
A campaign calling for a halt to the execution was
launched on Facebook and Twitter, using the
hashtag #SaveReyhanehJabbari. Photographs of a
protest outside the prison were also posted.
On Tuesday, activists and bloggers reported that
Ms Jabbari's execution appeared to have been
postponed so that Mr Abdolali Sarbandi's family
could be consulted.
They cited a letter reportedly written by Ms
Jabbari's mother, Sholeh Pakravanin, thanking
people for their support and efforts to save her
daughter's life.
The development comes after activists said a
former psychologist had been executed for
"corruption on Earth and heresy in religion" near
the city of Karaj on Wednesday.
Mohsen Amir Aslani, 37, was arrested nine years
ago after giving religious classes in which he
provided his own interpretations of the Koran, they
said. He was subsequently accused by the
authorities of insulting the Prophet Jonah, the
activists added.
Iran's judiciary has denied that Mr Amir Aslani's
execution was linked to his religious beliefs.
Officials instead accused him of having had illicit
sexual relationships with a number of people who
attended his classes, the Guardian said
Tuesday 30 September 2014
Iran delays Reyhaneh Jabbari execution
