No decision on stoning

IRAN yesterday insisted no final decision had been made on the fate of a woman sentenced to death by stoning for adultery.

Iran’s foreign minister Manouchehr Mottaki made the announcement after fears rose in the West that Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani’s execution was imminent.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said Mr Mottaki assured him a verdict in Ms Ashtiani’s case has not been made and that reports about her eventual “execution don’t correspond to reality”.