TEHRAN, Iran, Sept 7, (Agncies): The lawyer for an Iranian woman sentenced to be stoned on an adultery conviction has said that he and her children are worried the delayed execution could be carried out soon with the end of a moratorium on death sentences for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
In an unusual turn in the case, the lawyer also confirmed Monday that Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani was lashed 99 times last week in a separate punishment meted out because a British newspaper ran a picture of an unveiled woman mistakenly identified as her. Under Iran’s clerical rule, women must cover their hair in public. The newspaper later apologized for the error.

With the end of Ramadan this week, the mother of two could be executed “any moment,” said her lawyer, Javid Houtan Kian.
The sentence was put on hold in July after an international outcry over the brutality of the punishment, and it is now being reviewed by Iran’s supreme court.
Ashtiani was convicted in 2006 of having an “illicit relationship” with two men after the murder of her husband the year before and was sentenced at that time to 99 lashes. Later that year, she was also convicted of adultery and sentenced to be stoned, even though she retracted a confession that she says was made under duress.

“The possibility of stoning still exists, any moment,” Kian told The Associated Press. “Her stoning sentence was only delayed; it has not been lifted yet.”
Meanwhile, the European Union on Tuesday condemned the stoning to death sentence passed against an Iranian woman convicted for adultery, saying it was “barbaric.”
In his first State of the Union address to the European parliament in Strasbourg, France, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said he was “appalled” by the news of the sentencing, and called it “barbaric beyond words.”

Ashtiani’s case points to larger divides between the West and Iran, which staunchly defends its legal codes and human rights standards as fully developed and in keeping with its traditions and values.
Iranian authorities have repeatedly bristled at Western criticism — including US State Department rights reports — saying foreign governments overlook shortcomings in their own systems and fail to hold Western ally Israel accountable for its treatment of Palestinians.
Barroso’s comments came shortly after Iran on Tuesday scoffed at European concern over the case.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said Ashtiani faced charges of murder and infidelity and the case shouldn’t be linked to human rights. Europeans who believe freedom for murderers serves human rights, he said, should release their own murderers from jail.
Offers of talks with Iranian officials were welcome, but only on bilateral and international issues, not the Ashtiani case, he said.

France and Italy have urged Iran to show flexibility in the case. The Vatican has raised the possibility of using diplomacy to try to save her life.
Mehmanparast said both cases of Mohammadi are still under review by the Iranian judiciary.
Foreign countries should not interfere in Iran’s legal system and stop trying to turn the case of a woman sentenced to be stoned to death for adultery into a human rights issue, Tehran said on Tuesday.
The case of the 43-year-old mother of two, condemned to death for illicit sex and charged with involvement in her husband’s murder, provoked an international outcry, with Brazil offering her asylum and the Vatican speaking out against the “brutal” punishment.
A government spokesman said the furore was based on false information about Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani’s case.
“Unfortunately, (they are) defending a person who is being tried for murder and adultery, which are two major crimes of this lady and should not become a human rights issue,” Foreign Ministry Ramin Mehmanparast told a news conference.
“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.”