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France's first lady, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, has come under attack by Iran's state-controlled media over her support for an Iranian woman, Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, who has been sentenced to death by stoning for adultery.

In a letter addressed to Ashtiani, Bruni wrote last week that her husband, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, was trying to secure her release. 

"I just can't see what good could come out of this macabre ceremony, whatever the judicial reasons put forward to justify it," Bruni wrote. "Shed your blood and deprive children of their mother, why? Because you have lived, because you have loved, because you're a woman and because you're Iranian? Everything within me refuses to accept this."