The prosecutor general in Iran says that a woman under threat of stoning to death for adultery has now received the death sentence for murder.
She will therefore be hanged rather than stoned to death.
Gholamhoseyn Mohseni Ezhei told a news conference in Tehran that Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani had been tried and convicted for the murder of her husband.
He says the penalty for that offence - death by hanging - would have precedence over the penalty for adultery.
Ashtiani was originally convicted in May 2006, when a criminal court in East Azerbaijan province found her guilty of having had an illicit relationship with two men following the death of her husband. She was given 99 lashes.
The BBC reports her lawyers insist she was never convicted for murder and possibly never even charged with the offence.
