Imprisoned Human Rights Defender Abdolfattah Soltani Denied Visitation with His Wife
Abdolfattah Soltani, human rights lawyer.
Evin Prison authorities have prevented Massoumeh Dehghan from visiting her husband, the imprisoned human rights lawyer Abdolfattah Soltani, a source close to the family told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran.
Dehghan went to Evin Prison with her daughter and Soltani’s mother on August 10, 2015. When they attempted to visit Soltani, Dehghani was stopped because her name was not on the official visitation permit, the source added.
“Mr. Khodabakhshi, the supervising Assistant Prosecutor at Evin Prison, did not allow me to have an in-person visit! I stayed behind and my daughter took [Soltani’s] elderly mother to the visitation room with difficulty,” Dehghan wrote on her Facebook page.
The source told the Campaign that relatives of prisoners are allowed one in-person visit per month. “They have not said why they denied visitation [to Soltani’s wife] but this is not the first time. They have done it many times.”
Political prisoners in Iran often receive additional punitive treatment over and above their prison sentences, such as denial of visitation rights or furlough routinely provided to other prisoners, and denial of needed medical care.
The prominent attorney and human rights defender Abdolfattah Soltani, who has spent four years in prison on charges of “being awarded the [2009] Nuremberg International Human Rights Award,” “interviewing with media about his clients’ cases,” and “co-founding the Defenders of Human Rights Center,” has also been suffering from new medical complications, after struggling with previous medical issues that have not been properly addressed or treated while he has been imprisoned.
“Previously [Mr. Soltani] was taken to a doctor for his heart and dental issues. He’s being run down more and more as time goes by. Now, in addition to digestive and heart problems, he’s suffering from neck pains,” said the Campaign’s source.
On her Facebook page, Dehghan wrote of the injustices Soltani has suffered since her husband’s imprisonment four years ago, after five men “ransacked” their home, confiscated personal items, and arrested her husband for his legal and human rights work.
A leading human rights lawyer, Soltani was arrested on September 10, 2011. On January 8, 2012, Branch 26 of Tehran Revolutionary Court presided by Judge Pirabbasi sentenced him to 18 years in prison, to be served in exile at Borazjan prison, and a 20-year ban on practicing law. In June 2012, an appeals court reduced his prison sentence to 13 years.
