Iranian Woman Coerced into TV Confession

Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, the woman who was sentenced to death by stoning for allegedly killing her husband, was taken to her home to ‘confess’ to her crime. Iran's state-run Press TV, arranged with Iran's judicial authorities to show a reenactment of her husband’s murder. The program, which aired on Friday night, shows footage of Ashtiani explaining how a relative of her husband’s asked her to make sure he was unconscious before she electrocuted him. "International standards for fair trial, to which Iran is a state party, guarantee the right not to be forced to incriminate oneself or to confess guilt,” an Amnesty representative said. “To organise a televised 'confession' midway through a judicial review of a serious case – where a woman's life hangs in the balance – makes a mockery of Iran's legal system." Though reports suggested that she had been freed, Iranian’s state news agency insisted she was still in custody.