{"id":1622,"date":"2020-06-24T13:01:28","date_gmt":"2020-06-24T13:01:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/?p=1622"},"modified":"2020-06-24T13:01:28","modified_gmt":"2020-06-24T13:01:28","slug":"no-lawyers-no-justice-attorneys-imprisoned-in-iran-for-defending-human-rights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/?p=1622","title":{"rendered":"No Lawyers, No Justice: Attorneys Imprisoned in Iran for Defending Human Rights"},"content":{"rendered":"

At Least Nine Defense Attorneys Sentenced to Prison Since 2018<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

June 23, 2020 \u2013 Two years after the prominent human rights attorney\u00a0Nasrin Sotoudeh<\/a>\u00a0was arrested and imprisoned in Tehran, the Iranian judiciary\u2019s continuing prosecution of independent lawyers under manufactured charges is laying bare the state\u2019s disregard for international standards of law and due process.\u201cThe courts are colluding with intelligence agencies to go after lawyers so that any last hopes for defending due process are extinguished, with the tacit approval of Judiciary Chief\u00a0Ebrahim Raisi<\/a>\u00a0and the Rouhani government,\u201d said Hadi Ghaemi, executive director of the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI).<\/p>\n

At least five human rights attorneys are currently imprisoned in the country for defending basic civil liberties under trumped-up charges.<\/p>\n

They are among a group of at least\u00a0nine known cases<\/a>\u00a0of attorneys that have been arrested, charged with national security-related crimes, and\/or banned from practicing law in the last two years.<\/p>\n

In addition to the list below, CHRI maintains this regularly updated\u00a0list of lawyers<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0known to have been imprisoned in Iran for their work defending the law.<\/p>\n

Rights Attorneys Sentenced to Prison<\/strong><\/p>\n

Payam Derafshan<\/a>: Held incommunicado at an unknown location since his arrest in June 2020 on unannounced charges. In May 2020, he was\u00a0sentenced<\/a>\u00a0to a one-year suspended prison sentence for\u201cinsulting the supreme leader,\u201d and suspended from practicing law for two years.<\/p>\n

Soheila Hejab<\/a>: Held at Gharchak Prison since May 2020, serving an 18-year prison sentence, five of which she must serve before becoming eligible for parole for \u201cforming a group for women\u2019s rights.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nasrin Sotoudeh<\/a>: Detained in June 2018 and sentenced to 38 years in prison, 12 years of which she must serve before becoming eligible for parole. Among her charges were \u201cencouraging prostitution<\/a>\u201d for advocating against compulsory hijab. Previously she served three years in prison for \u201cacting against national security\u201d and \u201cmembership in the Defenders of Human Rights Center.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mohammad Najafi<\/a>: Imprisoned for demanding accountability for deaths in detention and facing new unspecified charges, he was sentenced in 2019 to 13 years in prison for \u201cpropaganda against the state,\u201d \u201cinsulting the supreme leader,\u201d and \u201ccollaborating with enemy states,\u201d in addition to a four-year prison sentence in 2018. He must serve 10 years before becoming eligible for parole.<\/p>\n

Amirsalar Davoudi<\/a>: Behind bars since November 2018, he was sentenced to 30 years in prison and 11 lashes. He will be eligible for release after serving 15 years under the charge of forming \u201can illegal group,\u201d which was a\u00a0news channel<\/a>\u00a0for lawyers on the Telegram messaging app.<\/p>\n

Arash Keykhosravi<\/a>, who, along with fellow lawyer\u00a0Ghasem Sholeh Sa\u2019di<\/a>, was sentenced to six years in prison but later acquitted, is facing new charges of \u201cpublishing falsehoods\u201d for writing an article criticizing the imprisonment of attorney Mohammad Najafi.<\/p>\n

Abdolfattah Soltani<\/a>, who spent more than seven years behind bars for defending political prisoners,\u00a0and\u00a0Mohammad Ali Dadkhah<\/a>, who was sentenced in 2012 to nine years in prison but released on furlough in 2013, are both banned from practicing law.<\/p>\n

Ongoing Refusal to Abide by International Standards of Due Process<\/strong><\/p>\n

The assault on rights lawyers in Iran has been occurring amid a backdrop of two major changes to the legal process that have facilitated the authorities\u2019 ability to convict defendants in politically motivated prosecutions on unsubstantiated charges.<\/p>\n

In January 2018, Iranian courts began citing the\u00a0Note to Article 48<\/a>\u00a0of\u00a0Iran\u2019s Criminal Procedures Regulations<\/a>as justification for\u00a0forcing defendants<\/a>\u00a0to choose their legal counsel from a court-approved list. The\u00a0note also allows a\u00a0delay<\/a>\u00a0in an individual\u2019s access to counsel in cases involving \u201cnational security\u201d charges, which are used against perceived critics of the state.<\/p>\n

In a second blow to due process, in November 2019, Judiciary Chief\u00a0Ebrahim Raisi<\/a>\u00a0ruled that Appeal Courts could issue verdicts\u00a0without the presence<\/a>\u00a0of defendants and their attorneys, rendering the appeal process effectively meaningless.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the head of the judiciary can stop lawyers from practicing, it\u2019s time to say goodbye to this profession,\u201d Sotoudeh\u00a0said<\/a>\u00a0in 2018. She was arrested two months after making the comments and has been behind bars ever since.<\/p>\n

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At Least Nine Defense Attorneys Sentenced to Prison Since 2018 June 23, 2020 \u2013 Two years after the prominent human rights attorney\u00a0Nasrin Sotoudeh\u00a0was arrested and imprisoned in Tehran, the Iranian<\/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":[146,482,404,476,500,402,167,403,499],"class_list":["post-1622","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-human-rights","tag-abdolfattah-soltani","tag-amirsalar-davoudi","tag-arash-keykhosravi","tag-ebrahim-raeesi","tag-mohammad-ali-dadkhah","tag-mohammad-najafi","tag-nasrin-sotoudeh","tag-payam-derafshan","tag-soheila-hejab"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1622","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=1622"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1622\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1623,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1622\/revisions\/1623"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}