Iranian activists demand release of Nasrin Sotoudeh

Nasrin Sotoudeh

Shirin Ebadi and six other Iranian women activists are planning to sit in protest in front to Human Rights headquarters in Geneva on Monday in protest to the situation of detained lawyer, Nasrin Sotoudeh in prison in Iran.

Radio Zamaneh has gathered that these activists are planning to draw attention to the plight of Nasrin Sotoudeh who is being ignored by the Iranian judiciary after 103 days in solitary confinement and on her second hunger strike, and they are urging the public to join them.

In a statement, Shirin Ebadi, Khadijeh Moghaddam, Mansoureh Shojai, Parvin Ardalan, Shadi Sadr, Asieh Amini and Mahboubeh Gholizadeh announced their intention to sit in protest in Geneva urging the public and in particular women and human rights activists to join them in calling for the release of Nasrin Sotoudeh.

The statement indicates that after finalization of preliminary investigations and end of the trial, she should receive a verdict in at most a week. In addition, continuing to keep her in solitary confinement after the beginning of her trial is also against regulations. Sotoudeh has been kept in solitary confinement since the first day of her arrest and all her lawyer’s requests to set up a bail has been turned down. This has left Sotoudeh no alternative but to go on hunger strike to protest this situation.

These activists write: “we urge all free thinkers of the world as well as women’s rights activists and the members of the global human rights family to join this endeavour in solidarity with their sisters for the immediate release of Nasrin Sotoudeh and call on them to deliver the voice of our enchained companion to the world in every way they can from staging protests to sending emails and protest letters to Iranian embassies in different countries of the world to gathering in front of Iranian embassies and any other way possible.”

Nasrin Sotoudeh is an Iranian lawyer who was arrested last September by the Islamic Republic and is charged with “propaganda against the regime and collaboration with the Human Rights Defenders Centre” in Iran.

Recently they have added that charge of “failing to adhere to the Islamic dress code (hijab).”

Sotoudeh's practice was mostly concentrated on human rights violation cases and before her arrest, she was attorney to a number of prominent post-election political prisoners.