News reports that Iranian “stoning” woman Sakineh has been freed

Jubilant campaigners have claimed victory in the case of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, the woman whose sentence of death by stoning for adultery triggered an international outcry, the Guardian reports.

Images from state-run Press TV showed her meeting her son Sajjad at home in Osku in northwestern Iran, boosting supporters’ hopes that she had been released.

The move came just weeks after Iran signalled for the first time that it might spare the life of Mohammadi Ashtiani, 43, a mother of two who has been in Tabriz prison since 2006 and faced execution by stoning for “having an illicit relationship outside marriage.”

Her release is a triumph for an intensive international campaign launched by her son Sajad Ghaderzadeh and first reported by the Guardian in early July.

Sajad, her lawyer Houtan Kian and two German journalists who were arrested after trying to interview her have also been freed.

Let’s hope this is true and not some cruel joke on the part of the Iranian regime.