Iranian lawyer gets 12 years for 'insults' after representing hijab protester

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Iranian women's rights lawyer, activist, and journalist Nasrin Sotoudeh was sentenced to more than a dozen years in prison on undisclosed charges.

Her lawyer Mostafa Turk Hamedani told state-run IRNA news agency that "given the confidentiality of the proceedings and the security nature of the case I cannot disclose details about the court's verdict." 

Shahidi was sentenced to 12 years, 9 months in prison, according to Hamedani. She will also be banned from joining political groups, going online, participating in media, and leaving the country.

She has been targeted by the state since 2009 when she was an advisor to reformist Mehdi Karroubi during the presidential election. Then she was arrested and detained for three years after being charged with anti-state propaganda.

The European Union Parliament awarded Shahidi the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought for peacefully advocating for human rights in the Islamic Republic. She was never able to collect the award and prize money because she was in state custody.

Her most recent detainment began in June 2018, according to the Center for Human Rights in Iran, because she represented a woman facing imprisonment for peacefully protesting the country's compulsory hijab law.

Shahidi has also sued the Iranian judiciary for banning her from seeing her family and children while she has been jailed in the notorious Evin Prison.

A copy of her latest court summons was tweeted on her account in May. She was accused of "making insults," AFP reported.

"We saw that every day she made blatant insults against the judiciary branch and officials by posting very criminal tweets," Tehran's chief prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi said according to the semi-official ISNA news agency.

The International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute sent a letter to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei calling for Sotoudeh’s immediate release.