Vào hôm thứ hai 30/8, một quả bom ngoại giao đã nổ khi giới truyền thông chính thức của Iran gọi phu nhân tổng Thống Pháp, bà Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, là “con đĩ”!
Sau đó do thế giới lên án mạnh mẽ, vụ thi hành án tử hình đối với phạm nhân bị tạm đình hoãn. Tuy nhiên bà Ashtiani, năm nay 43 tuổi và là mẹ của 2 đứa con, vẫn có thể bị tử hình bằng hình thức treo cổ.
Sở dĩ có chuyện phản ứng nặng nề đến thế đối với bà Sarkozy vì trong thời gian qua bà đã tỏ ra ủng hộ mạnh mẽ số phận của một phụ nữ Iran sắp đối diện với bản án tử hình vì tội ngoại tình.
Sự ủng hộ mạnh mẽ của phu nhân tổng thống Pháp đã thật sự làm giới cầm quyền của Iran phát cáu, đưa tới ngôn từ xúc phạm mạnh mẽ đến phu nhân một vị Tổng Thống của một cường quốc hàng đầu ở Châu Âu.
Bà Sakineh Mohammed Ashtiani, vốn bị một tòa án ở Iran kết án tử hình bằng hình thức ném đá đến chết vì tội ngoại tình, đã bị cấm tiếp xúc ngay cả với con của bà, và bà Sarkozy đã kết án mạnh mẽ kiểu tử hình man rợ này.
Trần Vũ
Theo AP, Aug 30, 2010
Ashtiani, a 43-year-old mother of two, could still face execution by stoning or hanging after a final review of her case, her lawyer, Javid Houtan Kian, told The Associated Press Monday.
The Kayhan newspaper, whose editor is a representative of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, described Bruni-Sarkozy as a “prostitute” on Saturday in an article headlined “French prostitutes enter the human rights uproar.”
The state-owned news website inn.ir carried similar remarks on Monday.
“Although Bruni, the morally corrupt singer and actress of Italian (origin), was able to break the Sarkozy family and marry the French president, lately new reports have emerged about her affair with a singer,” said the weekend report in Kayhan.
That appeared to be a reference to rumors of infidelity in her marriage that Bruni-Sarkozy dismissed in April as “insignificant.” The rumors have since died down.
The French president’s office declined Monday to comment on the remarks in Iranian media.
The media attack was in response to an open letter Bruni-Sarkozy wrote to Ashtiani that was printed in several French news outlets last week.
“How to remain silent after learning of the sentence against you?” Bruni-Sarkozy wrote, adding that the stoning would “deeply wound all women, all children, all those who have feelings of humanity.”
“Deep within your jail cell, know that my husband will plead your cause tirelessly and that France will not abandon you,” she wrote.
Ashtiani was convicted in May 2006 of having an “illicit relationship” with two men after the murder of her husband and was sentenced to 99 lashes. Later that year, she was convicted of adultery and sentenced to be stoned, even though she retracted a confession she claims was made under duress.
Iran last month stayed her stoning, but authorities now say she has also been convicted of being an accomplice in her husband’s murder. In a purported confession aired on state TV early this month, Ashtiani admits to unwittingly playing a role in the 2005 killing. She could also face a separate death sentence in that case.
Her lawyer denies Ashtiani was ever charged with murder or brought to trial in her husband’s killing.
Protesters in cities across the globe have denounced the stoning sentence. About 300 people from rights organizations demonstrated in Paris Saturday to urge Iran to lift her death sentence.
“The stoning verdict has only been delayed, not halted,” Kian, Ashtiani’s lawyer, said in a telephone interview Monday.
The woman’s previous lawyer, who brought the case to the world’s attention in his blog, fled the country and received asylum in Norway after Iranian authorities began to pressure him and his family.
Kian said he, too, was coming under pressure. He said authorities broke into his home Sunday.
“Intelligence agents beat the guard of the residential complex where I live and broke into my home in my absence,” he said. “They took my computer, which contained the files of my clients, including Ashtiani.”
Kian said authorities have stopped him and Ashtiani’s two children from meeting her ever since her purported confession.
“Authorities say I’m banned from meeting my client. And they have told Ashtiani’s two children that their mother didn’t want to see them,” he said.
AP