More than 6,000 demand release of Nasrin Sotoudeh
Nasrin Sotoudeh, lawyer, human and Women’s rights activist has been given a new sentence; according to her husband, Reza Khandan, she was given 33 years in prison and 148 lashes.
Nasrin Sotoudeh has been representing opposition activist and most recently defending women prosecuted for removing their headscarf, which was known in Iran as “the girls of Revolution Street.” She was arrested in June 2018 under charge of insulting the Supreme Leader (Ali Khamenei), propaganda against Islamic Republic of Iran.
Her new sentence coincided with the appointment of new judiciary head Ebrahim Raisi. Mr. Raisi is one of the four judges who ordered mass killing of thousands of prisoners in summer of 1988 in less than 2 months.
In his report to the United Nations Human Rights Council in March of 2019, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, Mr. Javaid Rehman, states “The Government has introduced some measures aimed at mitigating the economic impact but has also increased the limits placed upon the rights to freedom of opinion, expression, assembly, and association. In parallel, ominous developments signal an increasingly severe State response, illustrated by the arrests of lawyers, human rights defenders and labour activists.”
This harsh and out of proportion “punishment”, even with Islamic Republic of Iran’s standard, seems extremely excessive and shows that this regime has no value and respect for human dignity.
We the undersigned, demand the immediate and unconditional release of Nasrin Sotoudeh and all political prisoners in Iran. We also demand that the Islamic Republic of Iran grant permission for Mr. Rehman to visit Iran to monitor the situation of human rights in Iran.
