Sarkozy joins fight to stop Iran woman stoning

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has thrown his weight behind the campaign to stop the stoning to death of an Iranian woman. “France considers that it is responsible" for the woman, he declared on Wednesday.

AFP

Sakineh Mohammadi-Ashtiani was convicted in Iran for adultery and for being an accomplice in her husband’s murder and may be stoned to death, although some reports say has been changed to death by hanging.

Two French former presidents have signed a petition to try and save her and the current president’s wife Carla Bruni Sarkozy has written a letter to her expressing her support.

“The Iranian regime exercises control by repression and resorts massively to capital punishment, including its most medieval form, stoning, with which Mrs Mohammadi-Ashtiani is threatened,” Sarkozy told a meeting of French ambassadors.

Former president of France Jacques Chirac joined Nobel laureates and Hollywood stars in their bid to try to stop the execution.

Jacques Chirac and another French former president, Valéry Giscard D’Estaing signed the petition calling on the Islamic republic to spare Mohammadi-Ashtiani and “recognise her innocence” on writer Bernard-Henri Levy’s website .

The petition has already been signed by figures such as Czech author Milan Kundera, pop star and anti-poverty activist Bob Geldof and actresses Juliette Bionoche and Mia Farrow.