TABRIZ // The son of an Iranian woman who has been sentenced to death by stoning said on Saturday that his mother was guilty of murdering his father but pleaded for her execution to be stayed.
Sajjad Ghaderzadeh said that his mother and her lover, Issa Taheri, were both guilty of murder and took issue with German journalists who had sought to highlight Western criticism of her trial.
“I consider my mother and Issa Taheri to be the murderers of my father and both are guilty,” Ghaderzadeh told journalists from international news organisations in the northwestern city of Tabriz where his mother was tried.
Ghaderzadeh, son of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, was himself released on bail on December 12.
His meeting with the media was arranged by the provincial justice department at a guesthouse belonging to a government welfare organisation.
Mohammadi Ashtiani, a 43-year-old mother of two, was sentenced to death by two different courts in Tabriz in separate trials in 2006.
Her sentence to hang for her involvement in the murder of her husband was commuted to a 10-year jail term by an appeals court in 2007.
But a second sentence to death by stoning on charges of adultery levelled over several relationships, notably with the man convicted of her husband’s murder, was upheld by another appeals court the same year.
Her stoning sentence has triggered an outcry in the West and her son on Saturday pleaded that her execution be stayed.
“My mother has been sentenced to stoning ... I want her death sentence to be dropped. This is my request,” said Ghaderzadeh, adding that he hoped the sentence would be stayed as Iran’s former judiciary chief Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahrudi had backed the suspension of such sentences.
Ghaderzadeh, who was himself arrested by authorities on October 3 for speaking to two German journalists, is now out on bail of around 40,000 dollars posted by a relative. The two German journalists are still in custody.
Ghaderzadeh said he made his mother’s case “controversial” in order to save her but acknowledged that the plan had backfired.
“I thought if the case becomes controversial, she would be freed. But it did not happen,” the bearded youngster wearing spectacles said in Persian with a heavy Azeri accent.
“I planned this myself and searched on the Internet and found Mina Ahadi who introduced me to (Mohammad) Mostafaie,” he said, referring to a Germany-based activist who has championed his mother’s case.
Mostafaie, who was the first lawyer of Mohammadi Ashtiani, has now left Iran. Ahadi raised the alarm in November over what she said was Mohammadi Ashtiani’s imminent execution.
Ghaderzadeh criticised Mostafaie, the two German journalists and the second lawyer Javid Houtan Kian who too is in custody, saying the group had “worsened” his mother’s case.
“He (Mostafaie) charged 20 million rials (2,000 dollars) and then escaped without even meeting me or my mother,” Ghaderzadeh said, disputing the lawyer’s remarks that his father was a drug addict and used to force Mohammadi Ashtiani into prostitution.
“What Mostafaie recently said that my father was a drug addict is a lie. He has made this up,” said Ghaderzadeh, accusing the lawyer of using the case to seek asylum outside Iran.
“I want to complain against Ahadi becuase she abused the case, Mostafaie for his false interviews, Houtan Kian for his advice to make the case more controversial and the two German reporters who entered the country as tourists,” he said, adding that he made a “mistake” in talking to them.
Ghaderzadeh also criticised Taheri and said it was “desperation” in the initial days that made his family grant clemency to his mother’s lover triggering release.
“The question is why is Taheri free?” the youngster said.
“He misused our desperation at that time to get our approval, but I will get Issa even if I have to study law.” Under the Iranian penal code, a murder victim’s family can offer clemency to the convict.
Iran’s English-language Press TV aired footage of Mohammadi Ashtiani last month in what it said was a re-enactment of the murder of her husband.
The report also included interviews with Mohammadi Ashtiani, her son Sajjad and lawyer Houtan Kian, and also accused Ahadi of seeking to politicise the case in the Western media with the aim of undermining the Islamic republic.
UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
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Favourite Emirati dish: Fish machboos
Favourite spice: Cumin
Family: mother, three sisters, three brothers and a two-year-old daughter
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Paatal Lok season two
Directors: Avinash Arun, Prosit Roy
Stars: Jaideep Ahlawat, Ishwak Singh, Lc Sekhose, Merenla Imsong
Rating: 4.5/5
The National's picks
4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
5.10pm: Continous
5.45pm: Raging Torrent
6.20pm: West Acre
7pm: Flood Zone
7.40pm: Straight No Chaser
8.15pm: Romantic Warrior
8.50pm: Calandogan
9.30pm: Forever Young
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
Read more about the coronavirus
If you go
- The nearest international airport to the start of the Chuysky Trakt is in Novosibirsk. Emirates (www.emirates.com) offer codeshare flights with S7 Airlines (www.s7.ru) via Moscow for US$5,300 (Dh19,467) return including taxes. Cheaper flights are available on Flydubai and Air Astana or Aeroflot combination, flying via Astana in Kazakhstan or Moscow. Economy class tickets are available for US$650 (Dh2,400).
- The Double Tree by Hilton in Novosibirsk ( 7 383 2230100,) has double rooms from US$60 (Dh220). You can rent cabins at camp grounds or rooms in guesthouses in the towns for around US$25 (Dh90).
- The transport Minibuses run along the Chuysky Trakt but if you want to stop for sightseeing, hire a taxi from Gorno-Altaisk for about US$100 (Dh360) a day. Take a Russian phrasebook or download a translation app. Tour companies such as Altair-Tour ( 7 383 2125115 ) offer hiking and adventure packages.
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Porsche Taycan Turbo specs
Engine: Two permanent-magnet synchronous AC motors
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Range: 450km
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Ms Yang's top tips for parents new to the UAE
- Join parent networks
- Look beyond school fees
- Keep an open mind
The rules on fostering in the UAE
A foster couple or family must:
- be Muslim, Emirati and be residing in the UAE
- not be younger than 25 years old
- not have been convicted of offences or crimes involving moral turpitude
- be free of infectious diseases or psychological and mental disorders
- have the ability to support its members and the foster child financially
- undertake to treat and raise the child in a proper manner and take care of his or her health and well-being
- A single, divorced or widowed Muslim Emirati female, residing in the UAE may apply to foster a child if she is at least 30 years old and able to support the child financially
Another way to earn air miles
In addition to the Emirates and Etihad programmes, there is the Air Miles Middle East card, which offers members the ability to choose any airline, has no black-out dates and no restrictions on seat availability. Air Miles is linked up to HSBC credit cards and can also be earned through retail partners such as Spinneys, Sharaf DG and The Toy Store.
An Emirates Dubai-London round-trip ticket costs 180,000 miles on the Air Miles website. But customers earn these ‘miles’ at a much faster rate than airline miles. Adidas offers two air miles per Dh1 spent. Air Miles has partnerships with websites as well, so booking.com and agoda.com offer three miles per Dh1 spent.
“If you use your HSBC credit card when shopping at our partners, you are able to earn Air Miles twice which will mean you can get that flight reward faster and for less spend,” says Paul Lacey, the managing director for Europe, Middle East and India for Aimia, which owns and operates Air Miles Middle East.
As it stands in Pool A
1. Japan - Played 3, Won 3, Points 14
2. Ireland - Played 3, Won 2, Lost 1, Points 11
3. Scotland - Played 2, Won 1, Lost 1, Points 5
Remaining fixtures
Scotland v Russia – Wednesday, 11.15am
Ireland v Samoa – Saturday, 2.45pm
Japan v Scotland – Sunday, 2.45pm