Iran contends lawyer linked to terrorist groups

Mohammad Javad Larijani

Head of Iran’s Human Rights Commission, Mohammad Javad Larijani says Nasrin Sotoudeh, detained Iranian lawyer is arrested on charges of “propaganda against Islam and the regime” and “contact with terrorist groups.”

Iranian media reported today that Mohammad Javad Larijani told reporters in the sidelines of a “meeting to examine human rights in current times” that Nasrin Sotoudeh is not arrested because of being a lawyer.

He explained: “You must realize that when you are someone’s lawyer, all your traffic should remain in the corridors of the court not from one capital to the other and giving interviews against the regime and the government. This is called professional abuse of the legal practice.”

Nasrin Sotoudeh has been under arrest for over a hundred days and it is now seven days that she has started a dry hunger strike for the second time.

Human rights activists report that Sotoudeh has been in solitary confinement throughout these one hundred days.

“An end to all unjust sentences issued after the 2009 elections” is Sotoudeh’s condition for ending her strike.

Reza Khandan, Sotoudeh’s husband insists that his wife has not committed a crime and all her communication with the media has been courteous, dignified and in accordance with every legal consideration.

Moahmmad Javad Larijani also spoke out against Shirin Ebadi, Iranian Nobel Peace laureate and claimed that she “has never taken one step toward the development of human rights.”

He added: “Her statements are similar to the statements issued by the foreign ministries of Britain and the US and at best we can say that he has become a lowly employee of these countries.”

Shirin Ebadi is one of the founders of Human Rights Defenders Centre in Iran which Nasrin Sotoudeh also collaborated with.

Larijani insisted that violence in Iran is much less than that seen in Germany, Britain and the US and he claimed the post-election events in Iran were “an attempt by reformists to stage a coup.” He maintained that Iran has been a model democracy in the Middle East for over thirty years.