Iran on Tuesday asked foreign nations to stop interfering in the case of an Iranian woman sentenced to death by stoning on an adultery conviction, and warned them against making her case "a human rights issue".
Rejecting western concerns about the harsh Iranian justice system, Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said at a press conference on Tuesday that the woman in question faced charges of murder and infidelity.
"Unfortunately, [they are] defending a person who is being tried for murder and adultery," Mehmanparast was quoted as saying at a Tehran news conference by Iranian news agencies.
"If releasing all those who have committed murder is to be perceived as a human rights issue, then all European countries should release all the murderers in their countries," he added.
The Iranian response came after several nations pleaded with Tehran to spare the life of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani -- the Iranian woman who was sentenced to death by stoning in July.
Earlier in the day, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso condemned Ashtiani's sentencing in his first State of the Union address on Tuesday, describing it as "barbaric beyond words".
"We condemn such acts, which have no justification under any moral or religious code," Barroso told the European Parliament in Strasbourg.
On Monday, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said he was prepared to do everything possible to save Ashtiani, stressing that her case has become a "personal cause" for him.
"I'm ready to do anything to save her," Bernard Kouchner told reporters in Paris on Monday after his meeting with Mohammad Mostafei, one of Ashtiani's lawyers. "If I must go to Tehran to save her, I'll go to Tehran."
Separately, the Vatican has said that it would use diplomacy to try and persuade the Iranian authorities to spare the life of Ashtiani, denouncing death by stoning as a "particularly brutal form" of capital punishment.
Ashtiani was convicted in 2006 of having an "illicit relationship" with two men, and was initially sentenced to death by stoning. But her sentencing was suspended later, pending a review after her case evoked an international outcry. She, however, could still be hanged.
Ashtiani, a mother of two, who has already received received 99 lashes as a part of her sentence, had denied the accusations during her trial. She is reportedly being held in Tabriz prison.
Death by stoning is generally awarded in Iran to people who have committed adultery, which is a capital offense under Iran's strict Islamic law. Although stoning is not prescribed in the Koran, some Islamic scholars argue that it is in the traditions of the Prophet Muhammad.
According Amnesty International, some 10 convicted criminals were awaiting death by stoning in Iranian prisons. The group has urged the Iranian government to drop the punishment of death by stoning from its penal code.
Last week, Ashtiani's son said that an Iranian judge had sentenced his mother to an additional punishment of 99 lashes after a British newspaper published a photograph of a woman without a traditional head covering, claiming that it was Ashtiani.
However, the British newspaper, The Times of London, later admitted that the photo in question was actually of a different woman which was mistakenly identified to be that of Ashtiani. The newspaper also published an apology over the issue. It is not known whether Ashtiani has received the additional punishment over the mistaken photograph.
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