(CNN) -- Contradictory reports swirled around an Iranian woman sentenced to be stoned to death for adultery, with one Iranian lawyer saying Monday she had been whipped 99 times for another alleged offense, but another casting doubt on it.
A woman who was in prison with Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani told lawyer Javid Houtan Kian that his client had been lashed over a newspaper photograph which, Iranian authorities thought, showed her without a headscarf. Iranian law requires all women to cover their hair, regardless of their religion.
The Times of London ran the photo on its front page on August 28, identifying a woman in it as Ashtiani. It later apologized, saying it was not her.
Kian was not able to speak to Ashtiani, and neither the courts nor the prison will confirm the whipping, but he believes the woman, he told CNN Monday.
"I know what she is saying is correct. If she is making this up, then how did she know that the reason for the flogging was over a photo released in a foreign newspaper?" he asked.
CNN
