Woman Hanged In Iran Despite Retrial Campaign

A woman has been executed in Iran after being convicted of murdering a man who she claimed was trying to rape her.

Reyhaneh Jabbari, 27, was hanged in a Tehran prison despite an international campaign to stop the execution.

She was sentenced to death in 2009 for killing former intelligence agent Morteza Abdolali Sarbandi.

But Amnesty International said she had been convicted after a "deeply flawed" investigation and trial.

She apparently admitted to stabbing him in the back but said another man also in the house killed him, according to the human rights organisation.

Amnesty said her claims do not appear to have ever been properly investigated and it had called for a retrial.

A Facebook page , with more than 17,000 likes, was set up to try to save her from execution - it now says Rest In Peace.

Her execution had been put off several times, including in the last month.

Britain has said it is "concerned and saddened" by the execution.

Foreign Office minister Tobias Ellwood said there were "questions around due process" in the case and that such actions would not help Iran improve relations with the rest of the world.

Amnesty spokeswoman Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui said: "The shocking news that Reyhaneh Jabbari has been executed is deeply disappointing in the extreme.

"This is another bloody stain on Iran’s human rights record.

"Tragically, this case is far from uncommon. Once again Iran has insisted on applying the death penalty despite serious concerns over the fairness of the trial."

Jabbari was hanged at dawn on Saturday for premeditated murder, the official IRNA news agency reported.

It quoted the court ruling as rejecting the attempted rape claim and saying all evidence proved Jabbari had plotted to kill the victim.

The court ruling said she stabbed him in 2007 after buying a knife two days earlier.

The execution was carried out after his family refused to pardon Jabbari or accept blood money.