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Prominent Iranian Human Rights Lawyer Released From Jail

September 18, 2013

by RFE/RL

Prominent Iranian human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh has been released from jail.

Her husband, Reza Khandan, said the Iranian authorities brought his wife home on September 18 and told her she did not need to go back to jail to serve the rest of her prison term.

Sotoudeh was serving a six-year sentence, after being arrested in 2010 and convicted on a number of charges including acting against Iran's national security.

She was reportedly released along with several other female political prisoners.

Her release follows the election of Iran's new president, Hassan Rohani, who has promised moderation and more rights for Iranians.

Khandan told AP the family had expected Sotoudeh to come home for a short leave, but "they have told her she is free."

He said the authorities gave Sotoudeh no explanation for her release.

Iran's ISNA news agency said Sotoudeh had been pardoned and freed from prison.

It said other people detained after unrest that followed the disputed 2009 reelection of former President Mahmud Ahmadinejad were also released, but gave no details.

The Iranian opposition website Kaleme reported that seven other female political prisoners have been released.

Hunger Strikes

Sotoudeh is an outspoken human rights lawyer known for taking high-profile cases, defending journalists and rights activists, including Nobel Peace laureate Shirin Ebadi.

After her arrest in 2010, she was initially sentenced to 11 years in prison for "propaganda against the regime" and "acting against the national security." An appeals court later reduced her sentence to six years, which she was serving at Tehran's Evin prison.

Activists and campaigners have said the charges against her were fabricated because of her human rights activities.

In 2012, the European Parliament gave its most prestigious award, the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, to Sotoudeh and acclaimed Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi.

While in prison, Sotoudeh repeatedly went on hunger strike in protest at her arrest and at being deprived of her rights while in jail, such as access to her lawyer and family.

Last year, she held a hunger strike for nearly 50 days to protest official harassment of her relatives, after her husband and 12-year-old daughter were subjected to a travel ban.

The United Nations, European Union, and the world's main international human rights groups had called for Sotoudeh to be freed, calling her a prisoner of conscience.

With reporting by Reuters, AP, and AFP

Source: http://www.rferl.org/content/iran-lawyer-sotoudeh-freed/25110334.html

Copyright (c) 2013. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.