Iran Snapshot: Using Sakineh (Again) for Regime Propaganda

Once again, Iranian officials have tried to use the case of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, the woman condemned to death for adultery and complicity in her husband's murder, to tarnish the bigger targets of activists and journalists.

First, Ashtiani's son Sajad Ghaderzadeh, detained since early October, was allowed to leave prison on $40,000 bail. He then gave a press conference in Tabriz on Saturday, in which he accepted his mother's guilt but pleaded for the commutation of her death sentence.

That statement is far from surprising, but there were a couple of twists in the interview. First, Ghaderzadeh said he had been freed on 12 December, a release that no one seems to have noticed. Then there was this: "Local officials had originally told journalists they would meet his mother...as well, but then they said the proper procedures had not been followed to give her leave from prison."

The curiosity is resolved this morning, for Press TV proudly brings out Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani:

The Iranian woman convicted of her confessed complicity in the murder of her husband as well as committing adultery has vowed to take legal action against two Germans for illegally interviewing her son about her case.

In a Saturday press conference outside the prison where she is being held, Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani also criticized her lawyers for what she described as efforts to politicize her case. 

She told reporters in Iran's northwestern city of Tabriz, where she was tried, that the reason for her planned lawsuit against the German nationals, who entered Iran as tourists but posed as journalists to interview her son, was that they duped her son into agreeing to the interview, leading to his arrest. 

She also rejected repeated claims by Western media that the interviews she has given and confessions she has made to Iranian media outlets were conducted under pressure. 

Iranian officials say Ashtiani was allowed to meet her son, Sajjad Qaderzadeh, who was freed from jail three weeks ago, on humanitarian grounds. 

The two German journalists, Marcus Hellwig and Jens Koch, are still in prison as is Ashtiani's Houton Kian. Earlier this month, Press TV aired a "documentary" in which Ashtiani and Ghaderzadeh were allowed to walk through their family home to recreate the murder of Ashtiani's husband. They also gave lengthy "confessions" in which they blamed lawyers and activists for manipulating the case against the Iranian regime.