IRAN faced international condemnation yesterday after Saturday’s execution of 26-year-old Reyhaneh Jabbari despite concerns over the fairness of her trial.

Ms Jabbari was hanged at dawn for the 2007 murder of Morteza Abdolali Sarbandi, though her defence that she was resisting rape by the former intelligence officer at the time has never been properly investigated, according to Amnesty International.

Nor was her claim that although she had stabbed Mr Sarbandi another individual had actually landed the killer blow.

Ms Jabbari’s lawyers have complained that no serious study of the cause of death had been conducted and that she was held in solitary confinement for months before her 2009 trial without having any access to her defence team.

Amnesty deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui said the execution was “another bloody stain on Iran’s human rights record.

“Tragically this is far from uncommon.”