IRANIAN AUTHORITIES HAVE GIVEN the go-ahead for the execution of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani this week, according to a human rights group.

Ashtiani was sentenced to death for adultery after being convicted in 2006, but the sentence was commuted to jail time this summer after intense international pressure on Iran.

A second sentence of death by hanging for murder was upheld, Time reports.

The International Committee Against Stoning says it has information that Ashtiani, 43, will be hanged today for the murder of her husband, according to the BBC.

Responding to the news, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she was “deeply troubled” and called on Iran to “immediately halt any plans for Ms Ashtiani’s execution”.

However, France’s foreign minister said the execution will not take place today.

Iranian authorities have not commented on the issue, according to Reuters, but French minister Bernard Kouchner said in a statement that he had held a conversation with his Iranian counterpart Manouchehr Mottaki.

He says Mottaki assured him that Iranian authorities have not reached a verdict on the issue yet and that the information regarding the execution was incorrect.

Time reports that over 100 executions have already taken place in Iran this year, and according to Amnesty International the country is second only to China for the number of people it executes.