France wants to sanction Iran for adultery penalty

European Voice

By Constant Brand

Other EU member states urged to consider punishing Iran for sentencing an ‘adulterous' woman to death.
Bernard Kouchner, France's foreign minister, has appealed to his European Union counterparts to consider new sanctions against Iran if it goes ahead with plans to execute a woman for adultery.

A spokesman for Catherine Ashton, the EU's foreign policy chief, said Ashton had received a letter from Kouchner today (27 August) calling on the EU's 27 member states to threaten new sanctions in a joint appeal to stop the execution.

He said Ashton would study Kouchner's request.

The woman at the centre of the controversy, Sakineh Mohammadi-Ashtiani, 43, was convicted in 2006 by an Iranian court of adultery and of being an accomplice in the murder of her husband, crimes to which she confessed on Iranian television earlier this month. It remains unclear whether she was forced to admit to the crimes, for which she initially received a sentence of death by stoning.

The sentence was lifted in July after international protests against it. However, Mohammadi-Ashtiani could still face execution by hanging.

In his letter, Kouchner said new measures have “become necessary...if we want to save this young woman”.

Ashton had already appealed to Iran in July “to halt” the execution of Mohammadi-Ashtiani and two other people, and to commute their sentences to jail terms.

Rachida Dati, a French centre-right MEP, on Wednesday (25 August) called on the European Parliament to issue an urgent appeal to Iranian authorities to stop the execution.

EU nations adopted tougher sanctions against Iran on 26 July to protest against the country's continued defiance of the international community's calls for Iran to provide more information about its nuclear enrichment programme. The EU, the United States and others fear the programme is being used to develop nuclear weapons, allegations that Iran vehemently denies.

The new sanctions target Iranian companies operating in financial services, transport and energy.