A picture taken on July 8, 2007 shows Iranian Reyhaneh Jabbari standing handcuffed at police headquarters in Tehran after she was arrested for the murder of a former intelligence official. AFP
TEHRAN, Iran 鈥� Iran hanged a woman on Saturday who was convicted of murdering a man she said was trying to rape her, the official IRNA news agency reported.
Amnesty International and other human rights groups had called on Iran鈥檚 judiciary to halt the execution. But IRNA said Reyhaneh Jabbari was hanged at dawn for premeditated murder. It quoted the court ruling as rejecting the claim of attempted rape and saying all evidence proved that Jabbari had plotted to kill Morteza Abdolali Sarbandi, a former intelligence agent.
According to the court ruling Jabbari, 27, stabbed Sarbandi in the back in 2007 after purchasing a knife two days earlier.
鈥淭he knife had been inflicted on the back of the deceased, indicating the murder was not self-defense,鈥� the agency quoted the court ruling as saying.
IRNA said the police investigation found that Jabbari sent a text message to a friend saying she would kill Sarbandi three days before the deadly incident.
Jabbari was found guilty of premeditated murder in 2009 but the sentence was only carried out after Iran鈥檚 Supreme Court upheld the verdict. The victim鈥檚 family could have saved Jabbari鈥檚 life by accepting blood money but they refused to do so.
In this picture taken on Dec. 15, 2008, Iranian Reyhaneh Jabbari, center, sits while attending her trial in a court in Tehran, Iran. Jabbari was hanged on Saturday, Oct. 25, 2014, who was convicted of murdering a man she said was trying to rape her, the official IRNA news agency reported. AP
Iranian media reports say the family insisted on their legal rights under the Islamic principle of 鈥渁n eye for an eye鈥� partly because Jabbari accused Sarbandi of being a rapist in what became a highly publicized media campaign.
In a statement ahead of the hanging Amnesty said the investigation had been 鈥渄eeply flawed鈥� and that Jabbari鈥檚 claims 鈥渄o not appear to have ever been properly investigated.鈥� The group is opposed to the death penalty and has long condemned Iran鈥檚 use of capital punishment.
Originally posted: 4:13 pm | Saturday, October 25th, 2014
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