Nasrin Sotoudeh, the imprisoned Iranian human rights lawyer who just ended her 49-day hunger strike to protest the travel ban on her 12-year-old daughter, has written a letter addressed to the public and to human rights activists. In the letter that appeared on her husband Reza Khandan’s Facebook page today, Sotoudeh explains the reasons that ...
From October 17 to December 4, 2012, human rights lawyer and activist Nasrin Sotoudeh was on hunger strike to protest the foreign travel ban imposed on her 13-year-old daughter, Mehraveh. Along with her father, Reza Khandan, Mehraveh had been served papers indicating that she was banned from leaving the country without any explanations or indication ...
As Iran’s execution rate continues to skyrocket and its prisons suffer from intense overcrowding, the independence of its judiciary and legal systems is being called into question. In Evin Prison in Tehran, where most prisoners of conscience are held, there is an entire ward—Ward 209—overseen not by the Judiciary but rather by the Intelligence Ministry, ...
Nasrin Sotoudeh was arrested on September 4, 2010. A lower court sentenced her to 11 years in prison, 20 years’ ban on her legal practice, and 20 years’ ban on foreign travel. An appeals court reduced her sentence to six years in prison and 10 years’ ban on her legal practice. ...
In an interview with the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, the wife of prisoner of conscience Abdollah Momeni said that she has been repeatedly denied visits to her husband who is imprisoned at Iran’s Evin Prison. “My children and I have not visited Abdollah for a year and a half, not even once,” ...
Imprisoned human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh, who has been on a hunger strike since October 17, told her husband that her health has deteriorated to the point where she is transferred to the prison infirmary every day. In an interview with the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, her husband Reza Khandan said, “The ...
(November 27, 2012) The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran welcomes today’s passage of a resolution by the United Nations Third Committee of the General Assembly calling on the government of Iran to stop its massive human rights violations. ...
Gohar Eshghi, Sattar Beheshti’s mother, told the Campaign that she is requesting an in-person meeting with Sadeq Larijani, Head of the Iranian Judiciary, so that she may talk to him about the investigations into her son’s death. “I would like to ask Mr. Larijani and the Tehran Prosecutor to give me an appointment so that ...
“The cause of his illnesses has not yet been determined, but the initial diagnosis is that Ahmad is under psychological pressure and stress has led to these illnesses. He has been under stress in prison for 3.5 years, especially the first few months of his detention when he was under immense pressure, and the effects ...
Student and human rights activist Abdolfazl Tabarzadi has been released after six months of imprisonment in Karoon Prison, after the medical examiner and a judge determined he is medically unfit to serve his prison term. Suffering from severe psychological problems, Tabarzadi is currently being treated at his family home. His grandmother, Sakineh Zibaei, told the ...
Respect the Oath: "Keep Them from Harm and Injustice" After international outcry about the suspicious death of blogger Sattar Bahashti while in custody of the Iranian security forces, Iranian authorities ...
“When Nasrin launched her hunger strike, our visiting days had been confirmed for Sundays, along with the other women prisoners of conscience. As she is in solitary confinement, though, they say she is banned from having visitors,” Khandan told the Campaign. “But that is totally irrelevant—these 20 days of solitary confinement are going to be ...
A source close to the family of Sattar Beheshti, a blogger whose family was informed of his death in custody on November 6, told the International Campaign that “If we know that we are supported by an organization and that our lives are safe and that they will not take us like Sattar to beat, ...
After several days of silence on the prison death of blogger Sattar Beheshti, the Iranian Judiciary’s Human Rights Council stated in a press release today, November 11, 2012, that by special order of Sadeq Larijani, Head of the Judiciary, “all aspects of the issue have come under careful review, and the Judiciary Spokesperson and other ...
Sattar Beheshti, 35, a laborer who criticzed the Iranian government for its oppressive policies in his blogs, was arrested on Tuesday, October 30. His arrest came after several warnings and summonses by Iran’s Cyber Police who had at one point threatened Beheshti that if he kept writing his critical blogs, they would “make his mother ...
A source close to the family of Sattar Behesthi, a blogger whose family was told on November 6 that he had died in a detention center, told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran that the blogger’s family was threatened with arrest if they spoke with the media. The source told the Campaign that ...
On October 30, a group of female political prisoners inside Evin Prison’s Ward 350 embarked on a hunger strike to protest their inhumane treatment by Evin Prison authorities following a raid by prison authorities during which the prisoners were subjected to degrading treatment. The group ended their hunger strike on November 5, after prison authorities ...
(Paris, London, New York, October 31, 2012) Iran’s judiciary and prison authorities should end mistreatment of the prominent rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh, Nobel peace laureate Shirin Ebadi and six human rights organizations said today. Ebadi and the rights groups also called on Iran’s authorities to allow all prisoners access to necessary medical care and ...
“For every day [journalists] spend in jail, Iran suffers a reputational problem somewhere in the world,” UN Special Rapporteur Ahmed Shaheed said in an exclusive interview with the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran. “I signify … a heightened sense of caring by the international community about the plight of people in Iran.” ...
Nasrin Sotoudeh, a prominent Iranian lawyer, has dedicated her life to fighting for human rights and defending prisoners of conscience in Iran. For her work, she was recently awarded the European Parliament’s prestigious Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought. For her work, she is serving a six-year prison sentence on charges of “acting against national ...
The European Parliament today awarded its prestigious Sakharov Prize for human rights and freedom of thought to imprisoned Iranian lawyer and human rights defender Nasrin Sotoudeh and prominent filmmaker Jafar Panahi. Both awardees have been sentenced to long prison sentences in Iran and bans on travel and their careers because of their opposition to the ...
“Siavash has lost a lot of weight and does not have a good psychological state. He is 24. He was a graduate student when he was abruptly banned from continuing his education, and then he was imprisoned. The month-long solitary confinement, loneliness, his education ban, and his uncertain future have all made him depressed. He ...
Protesting her prison conditions, Nasrin Sotoudeh embarked on a wet hunger strike beginning on Wednesday, October 17. Iranian Judiciary officials have not yet reacted to Sotoudeh’s demands. Nasrin Sotoudeh is objecting to her 12-year-old daughter’s travel ban and summons to court, the authorities’ refusal to allow her visitation with her mother for the past year, ...
Earlier this year, in July, Javad Larijani stated, “There are no political prisoners inside the Islamic Republic of Iran.” Just last week, on October 17, Larijani’s brother Sadeq Larijani, Iran’s Head of Judiciary, claimed, “No one is executed in Iran for their political convictions.” ...