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The lawyer of an Iranian widow, Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, who was sentenced to death by stoning for adultery, has claimed that she has been subjected to '99 lashes' for 'spreading corruption and indecency' in Tabriz prison after a false picture was published by the Times newspaper on 28 August this year for which it has already apologised. The unveiled photograph in question, published by the British tabloid Times, was reportedly not that of Sakineh, but of another woman of that country named Susan Hejrat, who lives in Sweden. The headline with the photograph said, "Revealed: true face of the woman Iran wants to stone." Inside, an editorial urged Tehran not to execute Ashtiani. Asthiani's lawyer Javid Kian has insisted that she has already received the lashes while her other lawyer denied it. "One of two women who had been held with Ashtiani in the Tabriz prison and recently released, told me that she had received 99 lashes for indecency after the photograph appeared," The New York Times quoted Kian, as saying. Meanwhile, Hejrat has confirmed that the photograph was of her, which she had used with articles she wrote about Ashtiani as a campaigner for women's rights in Iran. "It could have been mixed up in e-mail, I am very upset that she got another punishment because the Iranian government saw a picture of me," she added. The Iranian authorities are creating pressure on the media and on the international campaigners to stop focussing on her, failing which would lead to more trouble for Ashtiani, the paper reports. Ashtiani has reportedly been denied access to phone calls and visits for the past two weeks, including her family and even her lawyer.

Iranian stoning-to-death woman 'lashed 99 times' for false picture published by Times