According to Lauren Frayer:

A Contributor to AOL News:

(July 9) -- An Iranian woman sentenced to death by stoning for adultery will escape that punishment, Iranian state media reported today, after an international campaign drew Hollywood stars and global leaders decrying what one U.S. senator called a "barbaric" punishment.

But it's unclear whether 43-year-old Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani will avoid the death penalty altogether, or be killed by another method Iranian executioners use, like hanging or beheading. She's already endured a flogging for having an "illicit relationship" outside marriage, even though Ashtiani was a widow at the time of the alleged affair.

Another court investigating her husband's 2005 slaying convicted Ashtiani of adultery in the period when he was alive as well, citing the "judge's knowledge" but little evidence. The mother of two has been in prison in the northwestern city of Tabriz since 2006.

Ashtiani's case drew worldwide attention after her lawyer, Mohammad Mostafaei, blogged about her case last month, writing that his client was "on the threshold of stoning," according to Amnesty International, which issued a statement calling on Iran to halt her execution and commute her death sentence.

Human Rights Watch also got involved, issuing a statement on Wednesday calling on Iran to "immediately put a stop to this execution."

"Death by stoning is always cruel and inhuman, and it is especially abhorrent in cases where judges rely on their own hunches instead of evidence to proclaim a defendant guilty," the organization's Nadya Khalife said in a statement.

A State Department spokesman said Thursday that the United States has "grave concerns" that Ashtiani's punishment doesn't fit her crime. And Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, blasted Iran's execution method as "appalling" and "barbaric," according to Fox News.

After a photo of the black-veiled Ashtiani appeared on the front page of The Times of London on Thursday, British Foreign Secretary William Hague spoke about her case at a news conference alongside his Turkish counterpart, Ahmet Davutoglu.

Stoning is a "medieval punishment which has no role in the modern world," Hague said in comments carried by several news agencies. "If the punishment is carried out, it will disgust and appall the watching world."

The Times quotes Kerry and Rep. Howard Berman, D-Calif., chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, as expressing outrage over Ashtiani's sentence. Celebrities such as Robert Redford, Colin Firth and Emma Thompson have also signed a petition for her release, the paper reported.

Even Lindsay Lohan -- mired in her own legal troubles over a DUI conviction -- joined the cause, posting a Newsweek article about Ashtiani on her Twitter feed.

Ashtiani's 22-year-old son Sajad told the Guardian he was overwhelmed by international support for his mother's case and said the campaign for her release "is going very well."

"They gave me permission to talk to her and she was very thankful to the people of the world for supporting her. I'm very happy that so many have joined me in protesting this injustice," he said in comments published late Thursday. "It was the first time in years I heard any hope in my mother's voice."

Ashtiani's apparent reprieve came in a statement from Iran's embassy in London, citing "information from relevant judicial authorities in Iran" and saying that Ashtiani "will not be executed by stoning," state-run Press TV reported today. The statement notes that death by stoning isn't part of a draft Islamic Penal Code being deliberated in Iran's parliament, but it stopped short of saying the punishment is being phased out in Iran.

"It is notable that this kind of punishment has rarely been implemented in Iran," Press TV quoted the statement as saying. "Various means and remedies must be probed and exhausted [by the judiciary] to finally come up with such a punishment."

But the Guardian also reports that despite Ashtiani's last-minute reprieve, 12 other Iranian women and three men on are death row awaiting execution by stoning.

In Iran, male victims of execution by stoning are first buried up to their waists, then pelted with stones by a crowd of executioners. Women are normally buried up to their necks. The stones used are large enough to cause serious injury but not kill the person, and the victim often dies slowly and painfully.

At least 126 executions have been carried out in Iran this year, according to Amnesty International.