Nobel laureates seek action on Iranian mother's stoning

Paris: Public figures, including Nobel laureates and Hollywood stars, published a letter of support Monday for Iranian mother-of-two Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani who is facing execution for adultery.

"Urgent intervention is necessary to prevent an execution that observers believe is imminent," said a text published in France's Liberation newspaper, signed by dignitaries including Nobel Laureates Wole Soyinka and Jody Williams.

Other names included Czech author Milan Kundera, pop star and anti-poverty campaigner Bob Geldof and actresses Juliette Binoche and Mia Farrow.

They called for "the renunciation of any kind of execution, freedom without delay and recognition of her innocence," after Ashtiani, 43, last week made an apparently coerced televised confession. She faces death by stoning.

A woman dressed in a face-covering chador and said to be Ashtiani confessed on Iranian television to being an accomplice in her husband's murder in 2006. She was previously found guilty of adultery.

Her lawyer, Javid Kian, said Iranian authorities have prevented him from seeing his client, and that he expected the Supreme Court to make its final ruling in the next few days on whether her execution will go ahead.

On July 11, state news agency Irna reported that Iran's judiciary chief Saddiq Larijani temporarily halted the execution, after the case attracted international condemnation.