Malek Ajdar Sharifi, the justice chief for East Azarbaijan province, who had talked on Sunday, 25 December about Sakineh Ashtiani and her death sentence to Iranian media, now says that he has been ‘misquoted’.
"In recent days, reports quoting me on the case, especially... on the method of carrying out the sentence against Sakineh Ashtiani were published in abbreviated form and with an incorrect interpretation," he told Iranian media on Wednesday, 28 December.
Well, we are quite familiar by now with how quickly after an international outcry the Islamic regime’s authorities always fall back on ‘not having said this or that’, ‘misquotation’ and ‘wrong information’ in an attempt to deflect attention and outrage.
The facts I think speak for themselves.
Sakineh Ashtiani is still in prison awaiting her execution.
Houtan Kian, her lawyer, is still in prison.
Neither has committed a crime.
So unless Sakineh and Houtan are out of prison, safe and secure, we haven’t understood anything wrong.