June 22, 2018
Nasrin Sotoudeh has once again been arrested and tossed into a cell in Evin Prison.
The human rights lawyer was taken from her home June 13, according to her husband, Reza Khandan, who said she managed to call him after she was detained.
He said she was told she must serve a new five-year sentence after being convicted in absentia. “I have no idea what the sentence was related to,” he said.
In a Facebook post, Khandan said his wife told him she had told her interrogators, “Of all the functions that governments of the world are expected to do, you only know one—how to arrest people.”
Khandan said their 18-year-old daughter was at home at the time of the arrest. ”My daughter is preparing for university entrance exams that will be held in two weeks,” he said. “I don’t know how she will manage it in such conditions.’’
Amnesty International condemned the detention, calling it an “outrageous attack on a brave and prolific human rights defender.’’
Sotoudeh, 55, is an outspoken critic of the country’s judiciary. She had recently objected to its decision to limit the number of lawyers allowed to defend clients in security-related cases, calling the move a “farewell’’ to the rights of legal defense. The judiciary had released a list of just 20 lawyers, out of 60,000 licensed attorneys, who would be allowed to defend such cases. After widespread objections, the judiciary said it would expand the list.
Sotoudeh, the mother of two teenagers also worked as a lawyer for women detained for refusing to cover their hair in public.
Sotoudeh, who has also represented prominent opposition activists, had previously served a three-year prison term from 2010 to 2013 after being convicted on security-related charges. She was released shortly before President Rohani was due to make his first speech to the UN General Assembly.
The Judiciary has still not made any announcement about Sotoudeh’s detention. Several days later, Khandan said his wife had been told she was arrested because she had “colluded” with one of her clients, Shaparak Shajarizadeh, in the courthouse in Kashan.
Khandan called the charge “laughable” since lawyers are expected to meet with their clients. But more importantly, Khandan told the Council for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI), Mrs. Shajarizadeh was arrested in Kashan, 150 miles from Tehran, and Sotoudeh was unable to make the trip, so no meeting took place in the courthouse there.