Nasrin Sotudeh Must Be Unconditionally Freed
and Given Immediate Medical Attention!
Lawyer, member of Defenders of Human Rights, women’s rights advocate, children’s rights advocate, recipient of the United Nations Award in Human Rights, and defence lawyer for many political prisoners and teenagers sentenced to execution, Nasrin Sotudeh, was threatened a number of times for her human rights work prior to being arrested. The groups engaging in the threats, under the guidance of the “Revolutionary Guard,” had asked her to cease representing her clients.
Nasrin Sotudeh was first interrogated at the Narmak facility. Afterwards, on September 4th, 2010, after receiving a summons from the prosecutor in relation to 3 baseless counts of engaging in anti-regime propaganda, collusion, and assembly for the purpose of instigating riots counter to national security, Nasrin was called to the Court of Evin Prison. Nasrin and her lawyer Nasim Ghanavi went to the Evin Courthouse. Courthouse officials did not allow Nasrin’s lawyer to be present during questioning, and after a very short questioning period Nasrin was arrested and taken to Evin prison.
Throughout the time Nasrin has been under arrest and incarcerated, she has not been allowed any contact with her defence lawyer. Also, contact with her family members and dependents have been extremely short-lived. Before being called to the Courthouse, security personnel from the Information Ministry had come to Nasrin’s home and office on August 28. They searched the two premises, made records of the documents and personal items they found, and seized her and her spouse’s computer and personal items.
Protesting the barbaric nature of her arrest, interrogations, and the unendurable torture in Section 209 where she is kept, Nasrin began to hunger strike. She was only permitted to see her 3 and 11 year old children, mother, and sister momentarily on November 4th. She has not been permitted to see Mr. Reza Khandan, her spouse; throughout the time of her incarceration she has only been able to speak with him over the telephone
for 3 seconds. Nasrin broke her 28-day long hunger strike momentarily after seeing her family. According to sources from inside the prison, she has lost considerable weight, her skin color has darkened, and her bodily strength has decreased so much that she did not have enough bodily power to fully hug her children.
Nasrin threatened that if the previous prison conditions continued she would resume her hunger strike. Within a short time, on October 31st, she began a dry hunger strike due to barbaric behaviour of interrogators in Evin Prison’s Section 209. A few hours after Nasrin had begun her dry hunger strike, the Tehran Prosecutor infamous for bloodshed, Abbas Jaafari Dolat-Abadi, went to Evin prison in the attempt to compel Nasrin to end her hunger strike. This meeting did not change her decision, however, and she has continued with her dry hunger strike.
Nasrin lawyers requested an update on Nasrin’s file from the court and were told by a judge named ‘Pir Abbasi’ that Nasrin’s case would be heard on November 15th in Section 26 of the “Revolutionary Court”.
Up until now many human rights organizations such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Journalists without Borders, as well as political figures such as Vaclav Havel, former President of Czechoslovakia, have protested the above conditions and requested that Nasrin Sotudeh be freed.
The Islamic Republic has taken Nasrin Sotudeh hostage, tortures her, does not allow her to see her children, spouse, and dependents, to scare other lawyers and the families of political prisoners, and so add a few extra days to its reign. Without a doubt, this is part of the dirty tactic of building a pretext for security and informational organs of the state to continue their wave of harassment and arrest against lawyers, human rights defenders such as Mohammad Olyai-far, Mohammad Ali Dadkhah, Abdol Fattah Soltani, Mohammad Seifzadeh, and the members of Defenders of Human Rights.
The Campaign to Free Political Prisoners in Iran (CFPPI), in solidarity with the children, spouse, mother and dependants of Nasrin Sotudeh, requests from all human rights communities to pressure the heads of the Islamic Republic organization to free Nasrin and immediately transfer her to a hospital where she will be given special medical attention.
Campaign to Free Political Prisoners in Iran
November 9th, 2010