Iranian Nobel Peace Prize Winner Shirin Ebadi says agents tricked her husband into cheating in 2009 in order to exert pressure on them.
Ebadi revealed the incident in her new book, titled Until We Are Free: My Fight for Human Rights in Iran, which is to be published on March 8.
An excerpt of the book was published on March 3 in the New York Times.
Ebadi wrote that Iranian agents videotaped a romantic conversation between her husband and a woman, as well as their physical encounter at a Tehran apartment.
The husband was then taken to the Evin prison where he was flogged for having drunk alcohol, and was later sentenced to stoning for committing adultery, according to Ebadi.
And in a video message, he was forced to denounce his wife as a Western agent in order to gain his freedom.
The couple has since divorced.
Ebadi wrote that Iranian intelligence agents “were prepared to do anything — crush people’s families, their marriages — to achieve their ends.”
Ebadi has come under pressure by the Iranian establishment for highlighting human rights abuses in Iran.
Several of Ebadi’s colleagues who defended political prisoners have been jailed.