An Iranian woman whose sentencing to death by stoning has sparked international outrage has apparently confessed to adultery and talked about her husband's killing in a state television interview. In the interview, aired on Wednesday night, Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani also criticised her lawyer for publicising her case, saying it had brought shame on her family.
A human rights campaign group, the International Committee Against Stoning, called the TV show "toxic propaganda". Ashtiani had previously denied the adultery accusations against her. International media attention given to the case has highlighted Iran's high number of executions and may have spared Ashtiani from being stoned to death, according to her lawyer, who has fled to Europe.
With her face blurred in the telecast and her words voiced over for translation into Farsi from local dialect, it was not immediately possible to independently verify the woman's identity. Ashtiani described how she had struck up a relationship with her husband's cousin.
"He told me: 'Let's kill your husband'. I totally could not believe that my husband would be killed. I thought he was joking," said Ashtiani. "Later, I found out that killing was his profession. "He came (to our house) and brought all the stuff. He brought electrical devices, plus wire and gloves. Later, he killed my husband by connecting him to the electricity," she said.