MOSCOW, September 30 (RIA Novosti) - An Iranian woman arrested in 2007 for the murder of a man who had allegedly tried to sexually abuse her could be hanged on Tuesday following a decision made in 2009 resulting from a flawed investigation and trial of the incident, Amnesty International reported Tuesday.
"Authorities in Iran must immediately halt Reyhaneh Jabbari's execution. It is unacceptable that she was not provided with a lawyer during questioning and the failure to investigate the presence of another man in the house leaves too many questions unanswered," said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, the Middle East and North Africa Deputy Director at Amnesty International.
Reyhaneh Jabbari was convicted of killing Morteza Abdoli Sarbandi, a former employee of Iran's Ministry of Intelligence and was immediately place in solitary confinement for two months without access to a lawyer, according to Amnesty International.
Jabbari's account of another man present during the murder has not been investigated. Although Jabbari admitted to stabbing Sarbandi once, she claimed another man at the scene of the crime was to blame for his death.
Investigations concerning the other man were halted when judicial authorities pressured Jabbari to remove her lawyer Mohammad Ali Jedari Foroughi, replacing him with a different less experienced lawyer. Preceding his removal from the case, Mohammad Ali Jedari Foroughi was denied repeated requests to view his client's court file.
Jabbari is one of many women executed in Iran as a result of biased or incomplete trials and investigations.
Amnesty International strictly opposes the death penalty in all cases without exception, regardless of the nature or circumstances of the crime with the belief that the death penalty violates the right to life as proclaimed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and is the most inhuman and degrading punishment possible.
