Carla Bruni branded 'prostitute' by Iran after she campaigns for woman threatened with stoning

Carla Bruni-Sarkozy has been branded a ‘prostitute’ by Iran after she publicly attacked the country for threatening to stone a woman to death.

France’s First Lady is part of a campaign to save the life of Sakineh Mohammadi-Ashtiani, a 43-year-old mother of two.

She is accused of cheating on her husband and then helping to kill him, and is now facing capital punishment for her crimes.

Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, who became President Nicolas Sarkozy¿s third wife two years ago, has signed a petition calling for Sakineh¿s release

Sakineh Mohammadi-Ashtian is accused of cheating on her husband and then helping to kill him, and is now facing capital punishment for her crimes

Ms Bruni-Sarkozy, who became President Nicolas Sarkozy’s third wife two years ago, has signed a petition calling for Sakineh’s release.

Last week the former supermodel said: ‘I just can’t see what good could come out of this macabre ceremony, whatever the judicial reasons put forward to justify it.’

Addressing Sakineh directly in an open letter, Ms Bruni-Sarkozy wrote: ‘Why shed your blood and deprive your children of their mother? Because you have lived, because you have loved, because you’re a woman, and because you’re an Iranian? Everything within me refuses to accept this.’

But Kayhan (which means ‘Universe’ in English), the Iranian daily newspaper which acts as a mouthpiece for the country’s ultra conservative Islamic regime, has now accused 42-year-old Ms Bruni-Sarkozy of being a hypocrite.

An editorial in the paper points to her chequered love life, which has included numerous relationships with high-profile celebrities.

Entitled ‘French prostitutes join the human rights protest,’ the article singles out Ms Bruni-Sarkozy and Isabelle Adjani, the French actress and friend of the First Lady who is also calling for Sakineh’s release.

Kayhan aims to ‘defend the ideology of the Islamic Revolution’ and is directly under the supervision of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s government.

Iranian state television also attacked Ms Bruni-Sarkozy for her support for Sakineh, saying she was using it to try and justify her own immorality.

The Elysee Palace had no formal reaction to the slurs in the Iranian media, but an insider said Ms Bruni-Sarkozy was ‘deeply shocked’ by the personal attack.

A protester, dressed with a costume to depict a woman stoned to death in Iran, participates in a demonstration in Paris yesterday over the death sentence against Mrs Mohammadi Ashtiani