Victim's family pardons Iranian woman who killed policeman   for attempted rape

TEHRAN, Iran  A woman who spent seven years on Iran's death row has been saved from   execution after the family of the police chief she stabbed to death dropped   its demand for her to pay with her own life, a judiciary official said   Wednesday.

     The death sentence against Afsaneh Nowrouzi, who said the official tried   to rape her, had provoked an outcry among Iranian women and garnered   international attention.

    This week, following mediation by the judiciary, the family of Behzad   Moghaddam agreed to monetary compensation of 500 million rials (US$62,500)   instead of Nowrouzi's execution.

     <With the efforts of judiciary officials, family members of the victim   were persuaded to give up retribution in this case and signed in a notary   public office not to demand death for Nowrouzi in exchange for blood money,>   said Mohsen Yektan-Khodaei, a top provincial judiciary official.

     Another official said Nowrouzi, now 34, is expected to be released from   prison soon.

     In 1997, Nowrouzi killed Moghaddam, the police chief on Kish island, in   the Persian Gulf. Her lawyer said she also cut off his penis and placed it   on his chest, a previously confidential detail that will be sure to shock   this conservative country where even talking about sex is taboo.  

   The Kish court rejected her self-defense claim, convicting her of murder   and sentencing her to death. She has been held in a prison in the southern   port city of Bandar Abbas ever since.

     The case highlighted how difficult it can be for Iranian women to obtain   justice against rapists. Unless a woman has very strong evidence, it is very   difficult to prove she was raped, and sometimes she ends up being charged   with adultery or illicit sex, which carry the death penalty. If she kills   the attempted rapist, she of course can be tried for murder and also   sentenced to death.

     If a man is proven to have raped a woman, he also faces execution.   However, in most cases the man is freed by judges who traditionally blame   women for attracting sexual advances.

     Nowrouzi's death sentence raised an outcry from women activists and drew   the attention of international groups who sought to overturn the order.

   Iran's Supreme Court initially upheld the death sentence but last year,   under intense international pressure judiciary chief Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi ordered    a stay of the verdict.

     The Supreme Court accordingly took a second look at the case and   overturned the death sentence due to <technical deficiencies.> It ordered a   new court ruling from the Kish court.

     However, as the court was readdressing the case, judiciary officials   intervened with Moghaddam's family.     Yektan-Khodaei, the provincial official, said they urged Moghaddam's   mother and his two children to show mercy to Nowrouzi, a mother of two.

     But Nowrouzi's lawyer, Abdolsamad Khorramshahi, said his client never   sought mercy because she believed she had justly defended herself.     <The victim's family members did a good thing signing documents not   calling for Nowrouzi's death despite my client's refusal to request mercy,>   he said.

  Woman activist and lawyer Sara Irani praised the resolution of the case.

     <The execution of Nowrouzi would have forced women to give in to   humiliation and not defend themselves. It would mean women are condemned to   death whether they kill the rapist or give in to sex,> she said.

     <Nowrouzi's freedom will give new breath to women to find the courage to   stand up for their rights and defend themselves,> Irani said.     Judiciary official Mohammad Javad Yavari said the death sentence cannot be   brought against Nowrouzi again and she is expected to be freed soon.