Iran arrests two ‘fake’ foreign journalists

Iran's judiciary has arrested two foreign nationals who it said were posing as journalists, the students' news agency ISNA reported Iran's prosecutor general as saying on Monday.

"Two foreigners posing as journalists have been arrested in Iran," said Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei.

"We were informed that ... the two planned to interview the family of Sakineh Ashtiani ... They entered Iran as tourists and conducted an interview with her son." The ISNA report did not give the nationalities of the two foreigners.

Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani was convicted of adultery, but Iranian officials earlier this month suspended her execution by stoning after weeks of condemnation from around the world.

She was convicted of adultery -- a capital crime in the Islamic Republic -- in 2006. She has also been charged with involvement in her husband's murder.

Adultery is the only crime which carries the penalty of death by stoning under Shariah, Islamic law, which Iran adopted after the 1979 Islamic revolution, a lawyer told Reuters.

The death penalty for murder in Iran is by hanging.

On the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in September, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad accused foreign media of fabricating news, saying Ashtiani had not been sentenced to death by stoning.

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