The execution of 26 year old Reyhaneh Jabbari has been carried out in Iran, according to the country’s news wire.
IRNA quoted the Tehran’s prosecutor’s office as saying she was hanged at dawn on Saturday, Al Jazeera reports, which appears to be confirmed by a message on the homepage of the Facebook campaign to save her which simply states ‘Rest in Peace’.
Jabbari was arrested in 2007 for the murder of Morteza Abdolali Sarbandi, a former employee of Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence. She claimed that he tried to sexually assault her and her actions were in self defence.
Amnesty International said the hearing in the criminal court, which occurred in 2009, was a “deeply flawed investigation and trial”. She was sentenced to death and the execution was due to be carried out on 30th September.
However, an international outcry including well known Iranian figures resulted in the hanging being postponed for ten days – although the campaign was for a stay of execution.
After her arrest, Jabbari had been placed in solitary confinement for two months, where she reportedly did not have access to a lawyer or her family.
Jabbari had apparently confessed to stabbing Sarbandi in the back but said that another man was in the house at the same time and he had killed him. She refused to reveal details of this other man, which would not be so unusual in a country which would not look positively on a an unmarried man and woman being alone in a house together.
These claims made by her do not appear to have been properly investigated, according to Amnesty International. They have also said that Jabbari was pressured by Iran’s judicial authorities to replace her experienced lawyer, Mohammad Ali Jedari Foroughi, with a more inexperienced on in what they say was an attempt to prevent an investigation of her claims.
The United Nations and other human rights organisations have said her confession was obtained under intense pressure and threats from prosecutors and a retrial was needed.
Ahmed Shaheed, the UN’s human rights rapporteur on Iran, said in April that Sarabandi had offered to hire Jabbari to redesign his office and he took her to an apartment where he sexually abused her.
Efforts for clemency had intensified in recent weeks. Jabbari’s mother was allowed to visit her for one hour on Friday, Amnesty said, a custom that tends to precede executions in Iran.
Jabbari’s mother, Shole Pakravan, confirmed the execution in an interview with BBC Persioa and said she was going to the cemetery to see her daughter’s body.
Iran has executed about 250 people this year.
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