Iran accuses U.S. of hypocrisy in woman's execution

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad accused the United States of hypocrisy on Friday for criticizing the death sentence of an Iranian woman, while a woman was executed in the United States this week.

Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani was convicted of adultery, but Iranian officials earlier this month suspended her execution by stoning after weeks of condemnation from around the world.

In the United States, Teresa Lewis, 41, was convicted of orchestrating the murders of her husband and stepson and died on Thursday by lethal injection in the state of Virginia. It was the first execution of a woman in the United States in five years.

Ahmadinejad told a news conference in New York, on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly, that the Iranian woman was accused of being an accomplice to the murder of her husband and that the case was still before the courts.

"My God, the noise that went around the same media who follow the (U.S.) State Department policy direction as though the only problem on this planet earth is this one alone. No other problems in the world for them to cover," he said.

"But last night a woman was actually executed in the United States with a similar sentence. Now if a woman in the United States is executed is it OK?" he said.

Ahmadinejad raised the death penalty cases while describing U.S. media as "the least trusted in the world."

Earlier this week, former U.S. President Bill Clinton told his annual philanthropic summit in New York that he was appalled at the treatment of women in some countries.

"It makes me sick to pick up the paper and think about this young woman being stoned to death because somebody has made up some story about her life and saying it's just our law," Clinton said without naming any countries.

(Editing by Lesley Wroughton and Eric Beech)