Berlin, Dec 9 : Iran has freed a woman sentenced to death by stoning for adultery, her son and her lawyer, a German-based campaign group said today after global outcry over the case.
"We have got news from Iran that they are free," Mina Ahadi, spokeswoman for the Anti-Stoning Committee, told AFP.
"We are waiting for another confirmation: apparently there will be a programme this evening on (Iranian) television and then we will be 100 percent sure."
There was no immediate confirmation from Tehran.
Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini immediately hailed the reported release and lauded it as "a great day for human rights."
"Iran has made the gesture of understanding and clemency that we were hoping for and it did so using its prerogative as a sovereign state," he said.
"It's a decision that merits strong praise and satisfaction," he said. "We take note of this in the knowledge that the prospect for dialogue with Iran also on human rights can resume in a spirit of renewed mutual confidence."
Sakineh Mohammadi-Ashtiani, a 43-year-old mother of two, was initially given death sentences by two different courts in the northwestern city of Tabriz in separate trials in 2006. AFP
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