The protest organized by Mina Ahadi (Central Council of Ex-Muslims Germany) and Maryam Namazie (Central Council of Ex-Muslims Great Britain) against the stoning of Iranian Sakineh Ashtiani provoked worldwide reactions. At first the Iranian regime tried to keep the protest down. In a television interview with the US channel ABC, Iran's president Ahmadinejad claimed that Ashtiani had never been sentenced to death by stoning. "Murderers of people who now pretend to represent human rights" had published this "propaganda", most notably also by "someone in Germany" (Ahadi).

After it turned out that the world public was not so easily deceived, the regime reacted indignantly: When two German journalists interviewed Ashtiani's son, Sajjad, and her lawyer Houtan Kian in Iran on October 10th through Ahadi, all four participants were arrested. Mina Ahadi, who translated the conversation by telephone, witnessed the events and informed the press. As the newsletter editors learned today, Sajjad and Houtan Kian were tortured in custody. Whether the two German journalists had suffered the same consequences could not be determined. In any case, they were transferred to the Tabriz prison together with lawyer Kian on October 26th. So far, all efforts by the Federal Foreign Office to free the journalists have been in vain.

In the light of recent events, 12 secular intellectuals have called for a boycott of the Iranian regime. The appeal, signed by Mina Ahadi, Richard Dawkins, Taslima Nasrin, Michael Schmidt-Salomon, and others, recalls the effective boycott of the South African apartheid regime. Now the Iranian government must be diplomatically isolated with the same consistency. Stonings are crimes against humanity that must not be tolerated under any circumstances.

The appeal by Ahadi, Dawkins, Schmidt-Salomon etc. (English):

http://stopstonningnow.com/wpress/4191

Iranians arrest German journalists (German):
http://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/0,1518,722518,00.html

Interview with Mina Ahadi (German):
http://www.thueringer-allgemeine.de/startseite/detail/-/specific/Die-Exil-Iranerin-Mina-Ahadi-ueber-Steinigungen-und-Sakine-Aschtiani-1199405356