© AFP/Amnesty International

PARIS (AFP) - The son of Sakineh Mohammadi-Ashtiani, an Iranian woman sentenced to death by stoning for adultery, pleaded Friday for sustained international pressure to save her life.

"I urge you, please keep up the pressure," said the son, Sajjad, in an interview published in France's Liberation newspaper.

"Had you not been there, my mother would have already been dead," he added.

The appeal came after a similar plea he made to Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, in which he said: "Your voice has more weight for the president (Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad) than ours."

Lula has already tried in vain to convince Iran to let Mohammadi-Ashtiani take asylum in Brazil instead of being executed.

Mohammadi-Ashtiani, a 43-year-old mother of two, was given the death penalty for an extramarital relationship.

Iran has subsequently said she was also convicted of being an accomplice in her husband's death, though she has denied that was the case.

Her plight has prompted protests in Europe and an international campaign to spare her. Tehran has provisionally suspended the death sentence but her son told Liberation that a "suspension does not mean it has been annulled."