The Telegraph -19 Apr 2014 By Damien McElroy, Foreign Affairs Correspondent – Death row accusations that an Iranian intelligent agent was a rapist could condemn his victim to hangman’s noose
An Iranian rape victim has been offered the option of avoiding the gallows if she complies with terms for forgiveness set by the son of the predator she murdered.
Morteza Abdolali Sarbandi, an Iranian intelligence agent, was killed by Reyhaneh Jabbari after she was lured to flat to undertake interior design work but sexually abused.
Jabbari pleaded self defence but was sentenced to hang for Sarbandi’s death. The interior designer’s lawyer has warned the sentence could be carried out within weeks.
Iran’s Islamic based legal system gives the family of victims the right to grant clemency in capital punishment sentences but Sarbandi’s son, Jalal has demanded that Jabbari must change her version of events if she hopes to live.
“Only when her true intentions are exposed and she tells the truth about her accomplice and what really went down will we be prepared to grant mercy,” he said.
