Under the headline “French prostitutes enter the human rights uproar,” the Kayhan daily newspaper referred Saturday to Carla Bruni-Sarkozy as a “prostitute” after she released an open letter in support of Sakineh Ashtiani, 43, a mother of two whose case has drawn international attention.

Kayhan, a newspaper headed by a representative of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, reiterated those statements Tuesday, writing that, “this woman with a bad history supports an Iranian woman who has committed adultery during marriage and is an accomplice to the murder of her husband who is sentenced to death, and in fact she [Bruni-Sarkozy] also deserves death.”