Country: Iran
Nasrin is Facing 34 Years In Prison & 148 Lashes (Media)
ICHR strongly demands the halt of Nasrin Sotoudeh’s sentence and her immediate unconditional release. Iran’s government must be held accountable for all intimidation, arrests, prosecutions, and ill-treatments of human rights defenders, lawyers, and labour rights activists.
After two extremely unjustified and inhuman trials, and 4 years of jailing Nasrin Sotoudeh the Prominent Iranian human rights lawyer is facing up to 34 years in prison and 148 lashes. The charges against her are solely from her peaceful human rights work, including her defence of women protesting Iran’s abusive forced hijab (veiling) laws, and her outspoken opposition to the death penalty.
Even by their crackdown, and regularly imposed death sentence Nasrin Sotoudeh’s sentence is unusually harsh.
The sentence news has come days after Iran appointed a new head of the judiciary — Ebrahim Raisi, a hardline cleric who is a protégé of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei. Which confirms patterns of increase hardline in prosecution, and ill-treatments of human rights defenders, lawyers, and labour rights activists.
Sotoudeh has won many very prestigious international awards, including The HR award for realm of human rights advocate that the International Center for Human Rights (ICHR) presented Nasrin Sotoudeh, the PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write (2011), Nasrin Southern Illinois University School of Law Rule of Law Citation (2011), and Sakharov Prize (2012), and he was also awarded the annual tribute for a lawyer September 2018, the 23rd Ludovic-Trarieux International Human Rights Prize which initially was granted to Nelson Mandela in 1986 when in jail.
Incarcerating human rights defender for her peaceful activities is dreadfully a violation of human rights, Nasrin Sotoudeh has dedicated her life to defending human Rights, women’s rights and speaking out against the death penalty, it’s utterly outrageous that Iran’s government authorities are punishing Nasrin for her human rights work.
ICHR strongly calls on the United Nations and Governments with influence over Iran to force the Iranian government to halt her sentencing, and release Nasrin immediately and unconditionally.