Prominent Human Rights Defender Was Facing Decades in Prison, Sentence Unclear
March 5, 2019 – The Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) forcefully condemns the conviction of prominent Iranian defense attorney Nasrin Sotoudeh in a court process sorely lacking in international standards of due process.
December 14, 2018 — Adding its voice to an increasingly international call, the European Parliament has overwhelmingly passed a motion urging the Iranian authorities to “immediately and unconditionally release” prominent human rights attorney Nasrin Sotoudeh.
Mohammad Najafi is the Seventh Attorney to Be Sent to Prison in Last Six Months, Six Remain Behind Bars
October 30, 2018—Iran’s sentencing of attorney Mohammad Najafi to three years in prison and 74 lashes for “disturbing the state” and “publishing falsehoods” after he advocated for a young client who died under suspicious circumstances in an Iranian detention center is a flagrant violation of the right to counsel and a continuation of the unlawful assault on the legal profession in Iran that has left a half dozen attorneys behind bars for doing their job.
Seven Lawyers Now Behind Bars with More Summoned or Banned from Work
September 5, 2018—The arrest of three more lawyers in Iran, Payam Derafshan, Farrokh Forouzan and Hoda Amid, represents the continuing escalation of Iran’s assault against its own legal profession and a flagrant violation of these individuals’ basic rights to freedom of expression and due process, the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) said in a statement today.
State Harassment, Arrest of Family Members to Silence Dissent Intensifies in Iran
September 4, 2018—Reza Khandan, the husband of imprisoned human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh, should be immediately released from detention in Iran, the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) said in a statement today. Khandan was arrested by agents of Iran’s intelligence ministry at his home on September 4 following his public support for his detained wife.
Association Notes Iran’s “Unacceptable Intrusion on the Independence of the Legal Profession Which Undermines the Rule of Law”
August 14, 2018—An intensifying state crackdown on human rights defenders in Iran, in which the authorities have denied attorneys the ability to represent their clients and jailed them for attempting to do so, violates Iran’s domestic laws and international obligations and must end, the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) said in a statement today.
Association Notes Iran’s “Unacceptable Intrusion on the Independence of the Legal Profession Which Undermines the Rule of Law”
July 18, 2018—Iran received yet another international rebuke for its persecution of lawyers trying to defend citizens’ rights and the rule of law in Iran with the open letter by the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute (IBAHRI) to Iran’s supreme leader calling for the immediate release of the prominent human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh.
Human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh
October 21, 2014— Human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh began a sit-in on October 21, 2014, at the Iranian Bar Association in Tehran to protest a ruling that puts a three-year ban on her legal practice, and in protest against the general state of legal representation in Iran. One day before starting the sit-in, in an interview with the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, she said that the protest will be of unlimited duration, until the Iranian Bar Association takes action on her demands.
Dear Compatriots and human rights activists,
The 2nd Branch of the Disciplinary Investigation Panel of the Bar has sentenced me, Nasrin Sotoudeh, lawyer, to a three-year ban on practicing law. Thus, I shall begin a sit-in outside the Bar Association on the morning of Tuesday 21 October 2014.
Ms. Nasrin Sotoudeh, human rights lawyer
The Observatory has been informed by the League for the Defence of Human Rights in Iran (LDDHI) of the judicial harassment faced by Ms. Nasrin Sotoudeh, human rights lawyer known for defending juveniles facing death penalty, prisoners of conscience, human rights activists and child victims of abuse. She is a member of the Defenders of Human Rights Centre (DHRC), and winner of the 2012 prestigious Sakharov human rights prize awarded by the European Parliament.
