Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani's televised 'confession'

Iran's attempt to quell public outcry over stoning sentence falls spectacularly flat.

Last Wednesday evening a woman appeared on a state-run television channel in Iran, confessing to her involvement in the murder of her husband. Almost completely shrouded in a black chador, she read out a statement in which she described how a relative had come to her home with electrical devices, wire and gloves, and electrocuted her husband while she watched. Her words were dubbed into Farsi, obscuring the sound of her real voice.

Whether or not this woman was really Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, as was claimed, is questionable. If it was Sakineh herself, then there is no question that her appearance was the product of torture. Why Iran chose to stage this macabre charade is baffling. The government claims to be unmoved by the barrage of criticism it receives from foreign governments and media for its flagrant abuses of human rights (and for the particular cruelty it shows its unfortunate female citizens), yet Wednesday’s ‘confession’ looked very much like a poorly thought-out PR stunt intended to quell Western outrage. Predictably enough, it has only generated further indignation and calls for Sakineh’s release.

Sakineh’s lawyer, who was forced to flee Iran after his wife and brother-in-law were arrested, has warned that the television appearance may signal an imminent execution, perhaps by hanging rather than the death by stoning that was originally planned. Presumably the Iranian authorities believe that a marginally less brutal execution method and a fraudulent statement of guilt will pacify the hundreds of thousands of people across the world calling for Sakineh’s release. It will not. The Iranian judicial system is increasingly a byword for corruption, inequality and brutality, and its international reputation will suffer enormous further damage if it persists in this mockery of justice.

Please sign the petition for Sakineh here.