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A woman has been executed for murdering the wife of a well known soccer player, her lawyer has said.
Shahla Jahed was hanged at 0500 local time Wednesday at Tehran’s Evin prison, according to the Irna news agency. The AFP notes that it’s the 146th execution in Iran this year. Jahed had been living with Nasser Mohammadkhani under a temporary marriage. She was found guilty of stabbing to death his first wife, Laleh Saharkhizan, in 2002. After confessing, Jahed later retracted the statement in court and had spent the past nine years in prison, during which time international human rights groups campaigned for her release.
(See pictures of terror in Tehran.)
Indeed, Amnesty International made a last-minute appeal, saying Jahed hadn’t received a fair trial, but it was to no avail. Malcolm Smart, Amnesty director for the Middle East and North Africa, said there were “strong grounds to believe that Shahla Jahed did not receive a fair trial, and may have been coerced into making a ‘confession’ during months of detention in solitary confinement.”
(See pictures of people around the world protesting Iran’s 2009 election.)
As for Mohammadkhani, as the practice of a temporary marriage is permitted under Shia Islam, he didn’t face charges of adultery though he was sentenced to 74 lashes for a separate drug-taking incident. (via BBC)