Artists, politicians write letter to free Ashtiani of Iran (Reuters)

London (Reuters) – more than 80 artists, scholars and politicians, including the actor Robert Redford, British singer Sting and Bernard Kouchner, French Monday called for the issuance of an Iranian woman sentenced to death by stoning.

Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani was accused of adultery and being an accomplice in the murder of her husband but his death sentence by stoning was suspended after an international outcry.

"Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani has suffered enough", the signatories said, in an open letter to the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and, on the first page of the newspaper The Times.

"We, the undersigned, call on the Government of Iran to release immediately the Madam Ashtiani, his son, Sajad Ghaderzade and his lawyer, Javid Houtan Kian, from prison," they said.

Head of the European Union's foreign policy, Catherine Ashton, the leader of Britain's working Ed Miliband, actor Robert De Niro, Mayor of Paris Bertrand Delanoe and Nobel literature laureate Wole Soyinka are among the signatories of the party.

Condemning to death by stoning for adultery Ashtiani--the only offence involving that worth under Islamic sharia law of Iran--was suspended earlier this year, but she still faces the execution by hanging for complicity in the murder of her husband.

The European Union has called the phrase "barbaric," the Vatican has implored clemency and Brazil, who tried to intervene on its nuclear programme of Iran standoff with the West, offered asylum Ashtiani.

While Iranian officials say case of Ashtiani is purely a matter for the judiciary, has become a cause international politics and the head of the Iran Human Rights Council said last month there was "a good chance that life can be saved."

(Reporting by Michel Rose; Editing by Angus McSwan)

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