{"id":1281,"date":"2018-07-18T15:44:06","date_gmt":"2018-07-18T15:44:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/?p=1281"},"modified":"2018-07-18T15:44:06","modified_gmt":"2018-07-18T15:44:06","slug":"international-bar-associations-human-rights-institute-condemns-irans-jailing-of-nasrin-sotoudeh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/?p=1281","title":{"rendered":"International Bar Association\u2019s Human Rights Institute Condemns Iran\u2019s Jailing of Nasrin Sotoudeh"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/span> Association Notes Iran\u2019s \u201cUnacceptable Intrusion on the Independence of the Legal Profession Which Undermines the Rule of Law\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

July 18, 2018\u2014Iran received yet another international rebuke for its persecution of lawyers trying to defend citizens\u2019 rights and the rule of law in Iran with the open letter\u00a0by the\u00a0International Bar Association\u2019s Human Rights Institute\u00a0(IBAHRI) to Iran\u2019s supreme leader calling for the immediate release of the prominent human rights lawyer\u00a0Nasrin Sotoudeh.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sotoudeh, 55, has been detained in Tehran\u2019s Evin Prison since June 13, 2018, and is facing\u00a0national security charges\u00a0for representing women in Iran who have removed their headscarves in public in protest against the compulsory hijab law.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) strongly supports IBAHRI\u2019s call and urges the international community, from rights organizations to\u00a0foreign state officials\u00a0to demand Sotoudeh\u2019s immediate release.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe IBAHRI calls on Your Excellency to ensure the immediate release of Ms. Sotoudeh, and to ensure that she is afforded the full protection of her due process rights in compliance with domestic and international standards,\u201d said the July 10 letter addressing Ayatollah Ali Khamenei that was published on July 17.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe IBAHRI further urges Your Excellency to take all possible measures to ensure that lawyers are allowed to carry out their legitimate professional activities without fear of intimidation, harassment or interference, in accordance with international human rights standards,\u201d added the letter signed by the IBAHRI Co-Chairs Ambassador (ret.) Hans Corell United Nations Legal Counsel and Under-Secretary-General for Legal Affairs, and the Hon Michael Kirby AC CMG, a former Australian High Court Justice.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cImprisoning lawyers for doing their job is an obscene travesty of justice,\u201d said CHRI\u2019s Executive Director Hadi Ghaemi.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe Iranian Judiciary should end its unlawful persecution of human rights lawyers and immediately release Sotoudeh,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sotoudeh\u2019s husband Reza Khandan\u00a0told\u00a0CHRI that Sotoudeh has refused to hire a defense attorney in protest against the Iranian Judiciary\u2019s recent implementation of a list of\u00a020 state-vetted lawyers\u00a0exclusively\u00a0allowed to defend\u00a0detainees held on politically motivated charges in Iran.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe IBAHRI expresses serious concern over the unwarranted interference with the professional duties of lawyers, as it is an unacceptable intrusion on the independence of the legal profession which undermines the rule of law and threatens democratic principles,\u201d said the IBAHRI\u2019s letter to Khamenei.<\/span><\/p>\n

Article 9 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), to which Iran is a party, protects the right to freedom from arbitrary arrest and detention. Article 14 guarantees fair trial rights, including that the person charged with a crime has the ability to communicate with legal assistance of their own choosing.<\/span><\/p>\n

Iran has a documented history of harassing and jailing lawyers who have taken on politically sensitive cases.<\/span><\/p>\n

In 2010, Sotoudeh was sentenced to 11 years in prison for the charges of \u201cacting against national security,\u201d \u201ccollusion and propaganda against the regime,\u201d and \u201cmembership in the Defenders of Human Rights Center.\u201d An appeals court later reduced her sentence to six years in prison and she was granted early release in September 2013 after serving three years.<\/span><\/p>\n

Well-known human rights lawyer\u00a0Abdolfattah Soltani\u00a0is currently serving a 13-year sentence in Evin Prison for peacefully practicing his profession in Iran.<\/span><\/p>\n

Operating independently from the International Bar Association, the IBAHRI is a global legal community promoting and protecting human rights and the independence of the legal profession worldwide.<\/span><\/p>\n

For interviews, contact:<\/span>
\nHadi Ghaemi<\/span>
\n+1-917-669-5996<\/span>
\nhadighaemi@iranhumanrights.org<\/span><\/p>\n

Visit our website:\u00a0www.iranhumanrights.org<\/span><\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

July 18, 2018\u2014Iran received yet another international rebuke for its persecution of lawyers trying to defend citizens\u2019 rights and the rule of law in Iran with the open letter\u00a0by the\u00a0International<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[400,167],"class_list":["post-1281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-human-rights","tag-ibahri","tag-nasrin-sotoudeh"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1281"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1281\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1282,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1281\/revisions\/1282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}