Iran report denies condemned wife has been released

An Iranian woman sentenced to death by stoning has not been freed, state television said last night, quashing a report that brought joy to human rights campaigners around the world.

Press TV said on its website that "contrary to a vast publicity campaign by Western media that confessed murderer Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani has been released", she was still in custody.

The Iranian English language news channel said an interview it did with Ashtiani - the apparent source of the rumour - was filmed at her home.

But rather than showing her freedom, the documentary shows Ashtiani at home describing the murder of her husband, a crime for which she could be hanged.

"Press TV ... arranged with Iran's judicial authorities to follow Ashtiani to her house to produce a visual recount of the crime at the murder scene," the television channel said.

Ashtiani's sentence to be stoned for adultery - the only crime which carries that penalty under Iran's Islamic sharia law - was suspended after an international outcry by Western countries and some others that have warm relations with Iran.

The European Union called it "barbaric", the Vatican pleaded for clemency and Brazil, which has tried to intervene in Iran's standoff with the West over its nuclear programme, offered Ashtiani asylum.

In October, two German reporters were arrested as they tried to interview Ashtiani's adult son, Sajjad Ghaderzadeh.

Berlin has appealed for the release of the Bild am Sonntag reporters, who government officials said entered on tourist visas and so had no right to work as journalists under Iran's strict media controls.

Germany and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, resumed talks with Tehran this week, seeking reassurances its nuclear activities will not lead it to acquire atomic weapons.

While a resolution to the nuclear standoff appears remote, the Ashtiani case has further strained relations with the West.

Tehran says international media have manipulated the story to demonise the Islamic republic.

In an interview with an American television network in September Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad denied Ashtiani was sentenced to stoning, contradicting other Iranian officials.

Iranian media do not refer to her stoning sentence for adultery, focusing instead on the murder charge.

Talk of Ashtiani's release appears to have been sparked by photographs Press TV released to the international media, one of which shows her in her garden with her son.

Rumours spread quickly on the internet, and thousands of joyful messages appeared on the Twitter website.

Press TV said Ashtiani had confessed and been found guilty of murdering her husband in collusion with her lover.

Iranian officials say Ashtiani's case is purely a matter for the judiciary, it has become an international cause and the head of Iran's Council of Human Rights has said there was "a good chance her life could be saved".

- Agencies