A young Iranian woman convicted of murdering a man she said was trying to rape her was hanged in a Tehran prison on Friday, despite an international campaign for a reprieve.
Human rights group Amnesty International said Reyhaneh Jabbari, 26, was convicted after a deeply flawed investigation, the BBC reported.
Jabbari was arrested in 2007 for the murder of Morteza Abdolali Sarbandi, a former employee of Iran's ministry of intelligence, and sentenced to death in 2009.
She was executed after her relatives failed to gain consent from the victim's family for a reprieve, state news agency Tasnim said on Saturday.
An international campaign calling for a halt to the execution was launched on Facebook and Twitter last month.
Amnesty said that although Jabbari admitted to stabbing Abdolali Sarbandi once in the back, she alleged that he was actually killed by someone else in the house.
Jalal Sarbandi, the victim's eldest son, said Jabbari had refused to identify the man. "Only when her true intentions are exposed and she tells the truth about her accomplice and what really went down will we be prepared to grant mercy," he told the media earlier this year.
Shole Pakravan, Jabbari's mother, confirmed the execution in an interview with the BBC's Persian-language service. She had been allowed to see her daughter for an hour on Friday.
Human rights group Amnesty International said Reyhaneh Jabbari, 26, was convicted after a deeply flawed investigation, the BBC reported.
Jabbari was arrested in 2007 for the murder of Morteza Abdolali Sarbandi, a former employee of Iran's ministry of intelligence, and sentenced to death in 2009.
She was executed after her relatives failed to gain consent from the victim's family for a reprieve, state news agency Tasnim said on Saturday.
An international campaign calling for a halt to the execution was launched on Facebook and Twitter last month.
Amnesty said that although Jabbari admitted to stabbing Abdolali Sarbandi once in the back, she alleged that he was actually killed by someone else in the house.
Jalal Sarbandi, the victim's eldest son, said Jabbari had refused to identify the man. "Only when her true intentions are exposed and she tells the truth about her accomplice and what really went down will we be prepared to grant mercy," he told the media earlier this year.
Shole Pakravan, Jabbari's mother, confirmed the execution in an interview with the BBC's Persian-language service. She had been allowed to see her daughter for an hour on Friday.
The court ruling said Jabbari, 27, stabbed Sarbandi in the back in 2007 after purchasing a knife two days earlier. Human rights groups had called on Iran’s judiciary to halt the execution after claiming her conviction came after a deeply flawed investigation.
Amnesty International believes that although Jabbari has admitted stabbing the man once in the back, she has said another man who was also in the house at the time actually killed Sarbandi.These claims could have exonerated her but are believed never to have been properly investigated, raising many questions about the circumstances of the killing.
The execution was carried out after Sarbandi’s family refused to pardon Jabbari or accept blood money.
Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui of Amnesty International said: “The shocking news that Reyhaneh Jabbari has been executed is deeply disappointing in the extreme.
“This is another bloody stain on Iran’s human rights record. “Tragically, this case is far from uncommon. Once again Iran has insisted on applying the death penalty despite serious concerns over the fairness of the trial.
“The death penalty is a despicable punishment that is both cruel and inhumane. “Applying such a punishment in any circumstances is an affront to justice, but doing so after a flawed trial that leaves huge questions hanging over the case only makes it more tragic.”
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