Iran hangs footballer's mistress Shahla Jahed1 December 2010 Last updated at 11:08 GMTTags: Iran executes Shahla Jahed, a woman, found guilty, of murdering, the first wife of prominent, footballer, Nasser Mohammadkhani, Shahla Jahed.
Iran has executed a woman sentenced to death for murdering the wife of a prominent footballer, her lawyer says.
Abdolsamad Khoramshahi said Shahla Jahed, 40, was hanged at 0500 local time (0130 GMT) at Tehran's Evin prison, the official Irna news agency reported.
International human rights groups have campaigned for her release since she was jailed more than eight years ago.
The execution is the 146th in Iran this year, according to AFP news agency.
On Tuesday, Amnesty International made a last-minute appeal for the sentence to be halted, saying Jahed had not received a fair trial.
Jahed, who had been living with footballer Nasser Mohammadkhani in Tehran under a temporary marriage, was found guilty of stabbing to death his first wife, Laleh Saharkhizan, in 2002.
She first confessed to the murder, but then retracted the statement in court.
According to the Irna news agency, Jahed prayed prior to the hanging and then burst into tears and shouted for her life to be spared.
Mr Mohammadkhani, a top Iranian footballer in the late 1980s who later became coach for Tehran's Persepolis club, was present at the execution, reports said.
Jahed had spent more than eight years in Evin prison.
'Procedural flaws'The practice of a temporary marriage, known as sigheh, is allowed under Shia Islam.
It prevented Mr Mohammadkhani from facing charges of adultery, although he was sentenced to 74 lashes for drug-taking after the court heard he had smoked opium with his mistress.
He was initially suspected of complicity in the murder and jailed for several months, but released after Jahed's confession.
Malcolm Smart, Amnesty director for the Middle East and North Africa, said there were "strong grounds to believe that Shahla Jahed did not receive a fair trial, and may have been coerced into making a 'confession' during months of detention in solitary confinement".
"She retracted that confession at her trial but the court chose to accept it as evidence against her," he added in a statement.
The verdict was overturned in 2008 after the judiciary cited "procedural flaws" but Jahed was again sentenced to death in February 2009.
Iran has attracted international criticism over the separate case of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, an Iranian woman who was sentenced to death by stoning for adultery.
After campaigns for her release around the world, her stoning sentence was suspended, although she could still be hanged for murder.
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