Sakineh Mohammadi Forced to “Confess” on TV

On the same day that Javid Kian, the defense attorney for four women who face possible stoning or execution in Tabriz, asked for international support to save the lives of Sakineh Mohammadi, Maryam Ghorbanzadeh, Kobra Babai and Azar Bagheri in an exclusive interview with Rooz, Iran’s national television station IRIB broadcast a program showing Sakineh Mohammadi “confessing “to have an affair and murdered  her husband, and even accused her other defense attorney Mohammad Mostafai of taking advantage of her.

Kian, who spoke to Rooz along with Mostafai, announced that Sakineh’s children had been put under pressure adding that the video film that was shown of her was under duress. He reminded the country’s judiciary and that it could not justify its actions through violence, force, duress and the creation of fake situations.

Mrs. Mohammadi was Beaten

Sakineh Mohammadi was shown on television was shown recriminating herself on television after the stoning court judgment had been suspended by the judiciary.

After the “20:30” program on IRIB which showed Mrs. Mohammadi “confessing” to her crimes, her attorney Kian told Rooz, “They (prison officials) took Mrs. Mohammadi to room 37 in Tabriz prison and extracted confessions from her incriminating herself. But the so called confessions did not take place under normal conditions but, based on the news that I have, were extracted under severe duress which included harsh beatings. Another dangerous thing they did is that they also took video clips of her family members and relatives against Mrs. Mohammadi.”

Kian said that judiciary officials had gone to Mrs. Mohammadi relatives’ house, who were deeply religious, and captured video clips in which the relatives said that Mrs. had committed adultery for which she had to be punished. “Relatives also put pressure on Mrs. Mohammadi’s children asserting that she had disrespected the honor of the family and therefore had to be stoned, this way also exerting psychological pressure on them.”

Attorney Kian revealed that he had heard from his other clients who were kept in the same prison ward as Mrs. Mohammadi that the latter had been put under pressure and beaten severely, forcing her to appear in the self-incriminating television program.

Speaking about the current condition of Mrs. Mohammadi’s case, Kian said, “Our last request from the court was to annul the trial and it had been agreed that they would inform us in 20 days, but unfortunately my colleague Mr. Mostafai’s issue came up. Then, the security department of the judiciary suspended the case, which was finally passed on to Mr. Saeed Mortezavi who sent the file to the security department of the judiciary noting that Maryam Ghorbanzadeh’s case had to be processed first and then Mrs. Mohammadi’s.  These two cases have nothing to do with each other. This way, Mrs. Ghorbanzadeh’s life is in danger and now that international attention is focused on Mrs. Sakineh Mohammadi, they want to execute Mrs. Ghorbanzadeh.”

Forty five year Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani has been in Tabriz prison since 2006 after she was arrested on sentenced to 90 slashes for coming adultery in branch 101 of Osko’s criminal court. After the execution of the sentence, when the sixth branch of Easter Azerbaijan’s criminal court was deliberating the case of the murder of Mrs. Mohammadi’s husband’s, Mrs. Mohammadi was tried again and this time sentenced to death by stoning.

After the international uproar against the stoning sentence of Mrs. Mohammadi, her sentence was suspended, but the head of Tabriz’ judiciary announced that Sakineh Mohammadi had been sentenced to death in her husband’s murder case. The defendant’s defense attorneys have rejected the sentence.

Mrs. Mohammadi’s son Sajad Mohammadi Ashtiani had told Rooz earlier, “They (the judiciary) had told us earlier that my mother’s case was under investigation and that it was possible that she would be retried. Nothing has been definitively told to us and we do not know what sentence they will issue instead of the stoning verdict.”

Mohammad Mostafai’s Response to the 20:30 TV Program

After Mrs. Mohammadi was shown on television making the self-incriminating statements, Rooz spoke with her attorney Mohammad Mostafai who is currently in Norway and this is what he said. “Everyone knows that whenever someone’s life is in danger, regardless of whether they have passed a sentence of execution or stoning on the victim, the person is forced to accept whatever her captors ask her to do in front of television cameras in the hope of saving her life. Regarding Mrs. Mohammadi too, I am certain that this has been the case. But I must also say that the issue of murder in her case is ruled out because the murder case is different from the adultery case. What is important is that when the relatives of a victim give their consent and withdraw their charges, execution or reprimand for the perpetrator is completely negated. This has nothing to do with the kind of crime that has been committed. So retribution for murder has been removed because the relatives of the murder victim has said they do not wish to press or pursue charges. But judiciary officials are highlighting the murder through the national radio and television network as a way to justify their own actions. My question is why are they not talking about the stoning sentence and do they not announce that Sakineh as asked for forgiveness on three occasions. Why are they not saying that 2 of the five judges have ruled Sakineh to be innocent because of the absence of evidence of adultery.”

In response to a question of why must a person who faces imminent death by stoning be brought before television cameras and told to make incriminating statements against herself. “Why do they not talk to her attorney on television? They claim that I have not met Sakineh, whereas I am her attorney and have seen her many times and spoken with her as many. I have an official power of attorney to represent her, which is in her dossier. I do not understand why there is so much official publicity and what are they trying to prove.”

Mr. Mostafai concluded that if the judiciary accepts his client’s request for an amnesty, none of this hue and cry would exist. “Government and judiciary officials need to know that nothing will move forward through violence, duress, and lies. I do not care what Israel or the US says or what they do. I am concerned and want to save the life a person from death. Meanwhile, some people outside the country too are taking political advantage of this, while others look at it completely from a human perspective and are silently doing what they can (to help save a life). I have nothing to do with those who are misusing this situation.  I love my country. Instead of making these fake documentary videos, they need to take the right steps in the interests of the country, the regime and Islam.”

Maryam Ghorbanzadeh’s Life is in Danger

Speaking about Maryam Ghorbanzadeh, another prisoner facing execution, attorney Kian says, “All the attention is focused on Sakineh Mohammadi’s case while the life of Mrs. Ghorbanzadeh is in danger as well. With the protests that have risen against the stoning sentence for Mrs. Mohammadi,  the stoning sentence for Mrs. Ghorbanzadeh was changed to execution about a month and a half ago. Her sentence has been sent to the execution office and may be implemented any moment. This woman may be killed any time.”

“Mrs. Ghorbanzadeh’s case is similar to Mrs. Mohammadi’s. She is in prison and had been sentenced to stoning. After all the hue and cry over the stoning sentence for Mrs. Mohammadi, Mr. Nowbakht, the deputy prosecutor of Tabriz sent Mrs. Ghorbanzadeh’s case to branch 12 of the provincial criminal court out of fear that the same fate awaited this case. The court changed her sentence from stoning to hanging,” Kian said.

Kian said that all he could do was to request that the trial be discarded, which he said he had done. He expressed uncertainty of whether they would accept the request or not. “Unfortunately, the file is currently in the execution office of the court,” Kian said with concern.

Speaking about Mrs. Ghorbanzadeh’s case, the defense attorney said, “Mrs. Ghorbanzadeh’s husband was paranoid who is dangerously suspicious so that he would give Mrs. Ghorbanzadeh sleeping pills before himself leaving the house, and he would lock all the doors of the house. He was divorced twice before, and both of his former wives filed for divorce because of his illness. He did the same thing with Mrs. Ghorbanzadeh who could not leave her house for months until she established close relations with someone outside her marriage, who then kills her paranoid husband. I must say that Mrs. Ghorbanzadeh has nothing to do with the murder. The murderer too has been free on bail.”

Kian continued describing the case in these words, “After the murder, Mrs. Ghorbanzadeh takes up a temporary marriage with this person she knew. The relatives of her dead husband however, arrange for the arrest of Mrs. Ghorbanzadeh’s temporary husband in an effort to deny her husband’s inheritance. When officials went in to arrest Mrs. Ghorbanzadeh’s husband, they found a video film that reveals the sexual relationship that she had with this man. The judge in branch 12 of Tabriz’s criminal court used this to sentence her to death by stoning. Our defense indicated that these two individuals were temporarily married when the movie clip was taken, which was attested by the date of the marriage certificate that was in the dossier.”

After mentioning that Mrs. Ghorbanzadeh was arrested when she was pregnant, attorney Kian said, “Three months ago, when Mrs. Ghorbanzadeh was six months pregnant, they forced her to undergo an abortion because a pregnant woman cannot be executed. We protested to this in the strongest terms and argued that a gene was a full person after three months and that removing it was committing murder. But they did not care and the attention that had focused on Sakineh Mohammadi made these gentlemen rapidly pursue the case of Mrs. Ghorbanzadeh.”

Kian said that his client had a very low morale. “Maryam’s psychological situation is not good and it has deteriorated after the abortion. She is now in danger of being executed, so you can imagine how she feels.”

Azar Bagheri is another Victim

Azar Bagheri is another client of attorney Kian who has been in prison since she was 14 years old. She was arrested on the protests filed by her husband and is now facing a stoning sentence.

Kian explained her case in these words. “Mrs. Bagheri was arrested ten years ago. We have tried everything in her case but she has been given the death by stoning sentence six times. More recently, they changed her sentence to lashing and the case has now been sent to the supreme court. If the court upholds this, then she will be free from the stoning sentence. Her 100 lashes, however, are to be executed on a naked body which in most cases leads to damage to the spinal cord.”

He explained that her case rested on that “Mrs. Bagheri’s husband owed money to a person. One day he invited the man to his house, and beat up his wife and the man, and then called up the police claiming that the two of them were having an affair. In fact this was jus a conspiracy plot to rid himself of his debt owner. Her case has been changed from stoning to lashes because we succeeded in showing that the whole scenario was a conspiracy by Mrs. Bagheri’s husband and that there was no affair in question.”

Death by Stoning for Kobra Babai

Mrs. Kobra Babai is another client that Kian has. Her husband had been executed in Tabriz on changes of being a homosexual. She herself now faces death by stoning. Kian has said that her sentence too has been sent to the execution office.

According to attorney Kian, Mrs. Babai’s husband Rahim Mohammadi too was not a homosexual and had not committed homosexual acts. He had created this story to blackmail someone. This failed and he was arrested. So Mrs. Babai is twice a victim and so she is in a dreadful psychological state right now and take dangerous medicine. So she too could be stoned any time.

At the end, Kian asked the international community for assistance and attention to save the lives of these four women, adding that there is nothing else he can do now for them.