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Babylon & Beyond

IRAN: Tehran frees two German journalists jailed for reporting on stoning verdicts

By Carol J. Williamswriter 
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Two German journalists were freed from an Iranian prison Saturday after the Tehran government agreed to show ‘Islamic compassion’ and reduced their 20-month sentences for reporting on the case of an Iranian woman twice sentenced to death by stoning for adultery and other crimes.

German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle arrived in Tehran late Saturday to accompany the two reporters for Bild am Sonntag newspaper back home after four months’ imprisonment in Tabriz.

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An Iranian Justice Ministry statement said their sentences had been reviewed and reduced to time served and fines equivalent to $50,000 each for ‘acting against national security,’ the ISNA news agency reported.

The journalists, Marcus Hellwig and Jens Koch, were arrested in Tabriz in October after interviewing the son and lawyer of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, whose 2006 sentences to death by stoning drew international condemnation. One of the two death sentences was upheld on appeal and she remains imprisoned pending execution.

-- Carol J. Williams

Babylon & Beyond
Carol J. Williams

Carol J. Williams is former senior international affairs writer for the Los Angeles Times. A foreign correspondent for 25 years, she has won five Overseas Press Club awards, two Sigma Delta Chi citations and was a 1993 finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in international reporting. She has served as Times bureau chief in Budapest, Vienna, Moscow, Berlin and the Caribbean. A native of Rhode Island and irrepressible Red Sox fan, Williams speaks Russian, German, French and Spanish, and has reported from more than 80 countries. She left The Times in 2015.

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