ADVOCATES HOPE IRANIAN GIRL WILL AVOID EXECUTION

the trial of Nazanin Fatehi, an Iranian girl convicted of killing a man who attempted to rape her, concluded, according to a former Miss World Canada who had advocated on her behalf.
Nazanin Fatehi, 19, had her case championed by former beauty pageant contestant Nazanin Afshin-Jam. The four judges overseeing the case agreed that the killing was not premeditated, so Afshin-Jam said she was hopeful Fatehi would avoid the death penalty and may even be released from custody.
"At this point, they might still give her a prison sentence or they might release her completely," Afshin-Jam told CTV Newsnet.
Fatehi was sentenced to death in an Iranian court a year ago, after admitting to stabbing to death one of three men who tried to rape her and a 16-year-old relative. Fatehi was 17 at the time. In June, her death sentence was stayed and a new trial ordered.
According to the Iranian daily newspaper Etemaad, Fatehi and her niece were in a park outside Tehran with their boyfriends when they were approached by three men. The boys fled after the men pushed the girls to the ground. Fatehi drew a knife and stabbed one man in the arm and another in the chest, killing him.
Under Iran's strict laws on chastity, if Fatehi had allowed the men to rape her and her niece, the girls would have been subjected to 100 lashes.
If they had been married at the time they were raped they would likely have been found guilty of adultery and sentenced to death by stoning.