TORONTO (CP) — A young woman who faced the death penalty for killing a would-be rapist is out of an Iranian jail
Nazanin Fatehi, 19, was released yesterday following an international campaign spearheaded by a former Miss World Canada with the same first name.
Nazanin Afshin-Jam, of Vancouver, turned the case into a global cause, campaigning relentlessly for a year to save her namesake.
Fatehi was reunited with her family in Tehran a few days after bail of just over $50,000 was handed over to the court.
Most of the cash was raised by a website created by Afshin-Jam, an Iranian-born pop singer and human rights activist.
Fatehi had been sentenced to death for murder after she stabbed, in self-defence, one of three men who attempted to rape her and her 15-year-old niece in a park outside Tehran in 2005.
But last year she received a new trial and a five judge panel unanimously overturned the charge of premeditated murder.
Afshin-Jam’s year-long campaign to save the life of her namesake included a petition signed by 345,000 people, numerous speeches and rallies worldwide and months on the media circuit. In a statement released yesterday, the Miss World Canada 2003 said she had spoken to her namesake who was in good spirits.
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