An Iranian woman sentenced to death by stoning says Tehran is trying to confuse the media so it can execute her in secret.
Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani said in a Guardian article published Saturday Iranian authorities are lying about charges against her and that she did not kill her husband.
Ashtiani, 43, was originally sentenced to die by stoning for having an affair, but the method of execution was changed to hanging because of a large public outcry, the paper said.
"They're lying. They are embarrassed by the international attention on my case and they are desperately trying to distract attention and confuse the media so that they can kill me in secret," the woman told the paper in an interview conducted through an unnamed intermediary.
The article did not say how Ashtiani's husband died but did report that a man convicted in the killing is in prison but did not receive the death penalty.
"I was found guilty of adultery and was acquitted of murder, but the man who actually killed my husband was identified and imprisoned but he is not sentenced to death," the paper reported.
Ashtiani's son reportedly pardoned the unnamed man accused of killing her husband.
"The answer is quite simple, it's because I'm a woman, it's because they think they can do anything to women in this country. It's because for them adultery is worse than murder -- but not all kinds of adultery: An adulterous man might not even be imprisoned but an adulterous woman is the end of the world for them. It's because I'm in a country where its women do not have the right to divorce their husbands and are deprived of their basic rights."
