The Vatican has said it could appeal diplomatically to Iran to spare the life of an Iranian woman sentenced to death by stoning for adultery.
The statement followed a plea for help from Sajad Ghaderzadeh, the son of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, in an interview with an Italian news agency.
"The Church's position against the death penalty is well known and stoning is a particularly brutal form of it," spokesman Federico Lombardi said in a statement.
Italy has strong economic relations with Iran. Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini appealed to Tehran to consider "an act of clemency".
On Saturday, Mr Ghaderzadeh said an Iranian judge had sentenced his mother to 99 lashes for "spreading corruption and indecency" over a photograph published in a British newspaper purportedly showing her without a head covering.
The photograph was published on 28 August but several days later the Times newspaper published an apology, saying the photograph was not of Ms Ashtiani, but of another Iranian woman.
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