An Iranian woman sentenced to death by stoning for adultery confesses to helping a man kill her husband in a re-enactment on state television - the latest state-orchestrated broadcast in a case that has raised an international outcry.
Today’s broadcast on English-language Press TV is an apparent attempt to deflect international criticism over the adultery sentence by bolstering Iran’s separate charge that Sakineh Mohammedi Ashtiani also was involved in murder.
Iran has put the stoning sentence on hold but could use the murder conviction to justify executing the 43-year-old mother of two.
Amnesty International has criticised the broadcast of a purported confession, saying it violated international standards for a fair trial.
Ms Ashtiani's sentence to be stoned for adultery - the only crime which carries that penalty under Iran's Islamic sharia law - was suspended after an international outcry by both Western countries and some others that have warm relations with Iran.
The European Union called it "barbaric", the Vatican pleaded for clemency and Brazil, which has tried to intervene in Iran's standoff with the West over its nuclear programme, offered Ms Ashtiani asylum.
She still faces possible execution by hanging for complicity in the murder of her husband.
Talk of Ms Ashtiani's release appears to have been sparked by photographs of her at home released to the international media yesterday by state-run Press TV ahead of an interview broadcast today.
Rumours spread quickly on the internet, with thousands of joyful messages appearing on the Twitter website after the International Committee Against Stoning, based in Germany, said "sources in Iran" had word of her freedom.
But Press TV later said that instead of showing her freedom, its documentary shows Ms Ashtiani at home describing the murder of her husband.
"Press TV ... arranged with Iran's judicial authorities to follow Ashtiani to her house to produce a visual recount of the crime at the murder scene," it said on its website.
Press TV said Ms Ashtiani had confessed and been found guilty of murdering her husband in collusion with her lover.
The Ashtiani case has further strained relations with the West as Tehran has come under tightened sanctions aimed at pressuring it to curb its atomic activities which some countries believe are aimed at building nuclear weapons.
Tehran says international media have manipulated the story to demonise the Islamic Republic. Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has publicly denied Ms Ashtiani was ever sentenced to stoning, contradicting other Iranian officials.
In October, two German reporters were arrested as they tried to interview Ms Ashtiani's adult son, Sajjad Ghaderzadeh.
Berlin has appealed for the release of the Bild am Sonntag reporters, who government officials said entered on tourist visas and so had no right to work as journalists under Iran's strict media controls.
Germany, along with the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, resumed talks with Tehran this week, seeking reassurances its nuclear activities will not lead it to acquire atomic weapons.
While Iranian officials say Ms Ashtiani's case is purely a matter for the judiciary, it has become an international political cause and the head of Iran's Council of Human Rights said last month there was "a good chance that her life could be saved".
The fate of the German reporters may also prove a political-diplomatic matter. A spokesman said the government was considering a request to release them over Christmas, something which would send a goodwill message to Berlin.
Agencies