Lawyer in stoning case says Tehran office raided

Oslo: An Iranian human rights lawyer who fled abroad after defending a woman sentenced to death by stoning said his office in Tehran had been raided and all his documents on the woman and his other clients seized.

Mohammad Mostafaei, 37, made headlines when he appealed through the media for international pressure to stop Iran stoning to death Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani who was convicted of "adultery while being married". That pressure, including appeals from friendly powers such as Brazil, appears to have worked and Ashtiani will probably be spared death by stoning for now, the lawyer said.

Arrest

However, Iranian authorities issued an arrest warrant for Mostafaei who promptly fled the country.

His wife was then arrested and held for two weeks in Tehran's notorious Evin prison in what he said was an attempt to force him to return.

Had he gone back, Mostafaei said, his wife "never would have forgiven me".

Iranian authorities did not stop there, he said.

"I have just received news that the office was stormed today, and they took my computer, client documents and other possessions," Mostafaei told Reuters in Norway, which granted him a visa after he was arrested in Turkey for entering illegally.

Ashtiani has already received 99 lashes for having an illicit relationship with two men.

Various crimes

The stoning sentence has been suspended pending a judicial review, but could still be carried out, an Iranian judiciary official said.

Mostafaei said his 100 clients in Iran include 18 juveniles, some facing stoning or other forms of execution for crimes ranging from homosexual acts to murder.

They include 18-year-old Ebrahim Hamidi who is facing imminent execution for sodomy, a charge he denies.

The conviction was based on an article in Iranian law which allows a judge to use his knowledge where conclusive evidence is lacking, Mostafaei said.

The sentence still stands even though Hamidi's alleged victim has withdrawn the accusation, he said.