German reporters freed by Iran arrive home (UPDATES)
Two German reporters Marcus Hellwig (L) and Jens Koch, freed by the Iranian authority, are escorted through Tehran’s Mehrabbad Airport after arriving from Tabriz on Feb. 19, 2011. The German reporters, who were held by the authorities for interviewing the son and lawyer of a woman sentenced to death by stoning for adultery, were freed after the courts commuted their jail terms to $50,000 fines.
Two German journalists arrived home on Sunday after being freed from four months of detention in Iran for meeting the son of a woman sentenced to death by stoning, the Foreign Ministry said.
Iran released Marcus Hellwig and Jens Koch from prison Saturday and handed them over to German consular officials. The BBC reported that German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle was heading to Tehran to bring the reporters home.
The Germans — a reporter and a photographer — got caught up in the case of Sakineh Ashtiani, convicted of adultery in 2006 after the murder of her husband and sentenced to death by stoning.
Iranian authorities arrested the Germans in October on charges they entered the country on tourist visas and failed to obtain the proper journalistic credentials. But an Iranian court commuted their 20-month prison sentence to a fine of $50,000 each, state media reported.
Their newspaper, the Berlin-based mass-circulation tabloid Bild am Sonntag, said it expected them to leave the country in the coming days, perhaps as early as Sunday, and Germany's foreign minister arrived in Tehran Saturday night in apparent preparation to bring them home.
In the face of international outrage, Ashtiani's sentence has been suspended and is under review by the Supreme Court.
She was later convicted of being an accessory to her husband's murder and sentenced to 10 years in prison.
According to the Associated Press, the Iranian government has made every effort to show that Ashtiani is guilty, airing interviews with her repeatedly confessing her crimes.