January 10-2014
. . . suspicious
Nasrin Sotoudeh’s home was mysteriously looted and ransacked two weeks after she met with a delegation from the European Parliament, to the vocal complaints of hardliners. The European delegation presented human rights lawyer Sotoudeh and film director Jafar Panahi with the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought that had been awarded the pair by the European Parliament in 2012. Nasrin Sotoudeh’s husband, Reza Khandan, posted a photograph of one of their rooms on Facebook and wrote: “It’s been two hours since we returned home after a one-day trip to attend the funeral ceremonies of one of our relatives who died in a car crash two days ago. In addition to the frightened faces of the kids and their aunt and the broken door to our apartment, here’s a picture of a corner of one of the rooms, showing the room ransacked like this. We haven’t yet been able to list the things that were taken. Almost nothing of value remains in our home. “How related is this incident with the recent uproar [over Sotoudeh’s meeting with the European delegation] remains to be seen pending the police and the security forces’ will to pursue the matter and find the perpetrators,” Khandan wrote. Sotoudeh was imprisoned in September 2010, but was one of 20 political prisoners freed this past September after President Rohani took office. Sotoudeh was originally sentenced to 11 years in prison, a 20-year ban on her legal practice, and a 20-year ban on foreign travel for “acting against national security, collusion and propaganda against the regime, and membership in the Defenders of Human Rights Center.” The center was created by Shirin Ebadi with the money she was awarded along with her 2003 Nobel Peace Prize. An appeals court later reduced Sotoudeh’s sentence to six years. The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran (ICHRI) assumes the ransacking was an official act and not just some rogue action. “It is doubtful that security organizations did not keep an eye on the comings and goings to the Sotoudeh residence in Tehran,” ICHRI said. “The raid and looting is reminiscent of similar incidents, such as in January 2009, when at the end of a long struggle with the 2003 Nobel Peace Laureate Shirin Ebadi, local police stood by and allowed a group of 150 ‘demonstrators’ to attack her home and offices. In September 2010, there were also attacks on the 2009 presidential candidate Mehdi Karrubi’s home by dozens of armed plainclothes forces. The attacks took place over three days and resulted in graffiti, vandalism, broken windows, and shootings inside Karrubi’s home. In that incident, also, the police did nothing to stop the perpetrators,” ICHRI said.