For those of you that have been following the tragic story of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani it has taken possibly its final grotesque twist.
The Iranian woman whose sentence to death by stoning sparked an international outcry is feared to be facing imminent execution, after she was put on a state-run TV programme last night where she confessed to adultery and involvement in a murder.
Her case is rare not because she faces execution for adultery but that her children are fighting for her life, most women in these cases are abandoned by both society and their families; it is unusual that we hear of them at all.
In an interview last week with the Guardian through an intermediary, Mohammadi Ashtiani accused the Iranian authorities of lying about the charges against her to confuse the media in order to pave the way to execute her in secret. "I was found guilty of adultery and was acquitted of murder," she said.
Yet one week later:
Speaking shakily in her native Azeri language, which could be heard through a voiceover, Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani told an interviewer that she was an accomplice to the murder of her husband and that she had an extramarital relationship with her husband's cousin.
Her lawyer and her children now say that she was tortured before she appeared on the state run TV.
Before we go off on the rant about evil foreigners using torture to justify their oppression of the people we must remember what is going to take place in Guantanamo and the sordid history of that prison. We have modified Military commissions taking place under a security that has become a farce in itself, and hence dubious legality.
With the use of psychological or physical torture confessions can easily be had, and the truth becomes hidden from view.
The fact that we as a nation decided to sweep the facts of our state sponsored torture in places such a Bagram, Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib under the metaphorical carpet of looking forward not back has severely curtailed any moral standing we once had.
For this reason alone I believe this was the worst decision our government has made to date it renders such actions as:
The interview was broadcast on a show called 20:30, a day after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged Tehran to honour treaty obligations to respect the rights of citizens and halt executions.
Meaningless.
The right in the US still support the principles of torture fully and openly, they make no secret of this fact. We have done nothing to prevent the systematic torture of our prisoners either now or in the future.
There has been no punishment for those who authorized extraordinary rendition nor the subsequent torture either by our own thugs or those thugs provided by our so called allies.
It is a stain on our nation and we have shown no contrition whatsoever, so now if we complain about other nations especially those nations that have had their people tortured by us can rightfully mock us for duplicity.
The use of kangaroo courts by both the Iranians and ourselves when judging those we have tortured quite frankly goes beyond the pale, no matter how guilty or innocent we believe the detained to be.
Human rights must be fought for no matter what the accusations are nor who is doing the accusing.
A final point, detention without trial or access to the human rights of habeas corpus, the denial of access of family to those detained is psychological torture. Every year that passes that torture is extended.
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I have a meeting that I must attend and will catch up with the comments this evening, and will comment more at that time