HRI demands release

Human Rights International (HRI) notes with regret and incredulity that all appeals for Nasrin Sotoudeh have been ignored by the Iranian authorities. The condemnation of the well-known human rights defender and HRI-Prize-winner to 11 years in prison and 20 years of work violates fundamental rights of the UN Declaration of Human Rights and other international agreements.
      On September 4 of 2010 the famous Iranian lawyer and human rights defender, NASRIN Sotoudeh, was charged in court, without legal counsel interrogated and arrested. Until the court ruling she was in Tehran's Evin prison in solitary detention. On September the 22 she began a 27-day hunger strike to protest their detention conditions. When her husband, Reza Khandan, finally was allowed to visit her, he said: "I almost did not recognize my wife, she seemed fragile and in poor health. On January, the 8, Nasrin Sotoudeh was sentenced to 11 years imprisonment, professional and exit ban for 20 years by the section 26 of the Revolutionary Court in Tehran under the chairmanship of Judge Pir Abassi. The court imposed 10 years imprisonment for "activities against national security, including membership in the Center for Human Rights Defenders (Center for Human Rights Defenders - CHRD) and a year for "propaganda against the system".
  Nasrin Soto is a close friend of the Nobel Peace Prize winner, Shirin Ebadi, which she represented as a lawyer in court. The draconian penalty raises the question: will the government in Tehran intimidate the last remaining human rights defenders in the country and, targeted indirectly, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi to silence?
  Human Rights International (HRI) considered Nasrin Sotoudehas a non-violent, wrongly convicted prisoner, which works for many years for victims of human rights violations. In her work she particularly invest in human rights defenders, which, because of their commitment to the recognition of basic human rights, were unjustly restricted in their rights and imprisoned. Furthermore, she was known as a defender of abused minors who faced execution.
  Sotoudeh also supported the women who were with the petition campaign "One Million Signatures Campaign"against the Iranian discriminatory laws against women and in particular against the unilateral rights of men in divorce, marriage and custody of children involved.
  In December 2008, Nasrin was awardes in South Tyrol, Italy, for their selfless dedication and courage with the "HRI-Prize for Human Rights".

11th january, 2011