International outcry as Iran jails outspoken lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh for 38 years

Rudaw

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Rights groups and the European Parliament expressed outrage following the chilling news from Tehran that the outspoken Iranian human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh has been sentenced to 38 years in prison in a “Kafkaesque trial” for her human rights work.


Sotoudeh’s husband Reza Khandan published the news on his Facebook page on March 11 which prompted Amnesty International to state: “This is the harshest sentence Amnesty International has documented against a human rights defender in Iran in recent years, suggesting that the authorities – emboldened by pervasive impunity for human rights violations – are stepping up their repression.” 

Sotoudeh, a former political prisoner, has campaigned tirelessly against the death penalty and defended many human rights activists, women and rights campaigners from ethnic minorities is respected internationally for her dedication to human rights.
  

 

She was arrested in June and was informed this week that she had been found guilty of seven charges and sentenced to 33 years in prison and 148 lashes. She previously  was sentenced to another five years in a separate case for her human rights work.


The vague charges included “Inciting corruption and prostitution,” “openly committing a sinful act by … appearing in public without a hijab” and “disrupting public order.” The judge used his discretion to apply more than the maximum sentence in her case.

 

Antonio Tajani, President of the European Parliament said on Twitter “I strongly condemn utterly outrageous Iranian government sentence passed against #SakharovPrize laureate, Nasrin Sotoudeh. She's dedicated her life to defending women's rights and speaking out against the #deathpenalty. The @Europarl_EN stands with her – at Le Parlement Européen”

 

Local human rights organizations have also criticized the lack of a proper trial in-line with international norms.

 

“Sotoudeh has been sentenced in a Kafkaesque trial severely lacking in international standards of due process,” said Hadi Ghaemi, executive director of the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI). 

“The Iranian Judiciary is punishing Sotoudeh for trying to uphold the rule of law and the right to a fair defense in cases involving defendants facing politically motivated charges,” he added. 

Sotoudeh won the European Parliament Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought in 2012 while in prison for not bowing to “fear and intimidation.” 

She was jailed from 2010 to 2013 on charges of propaganda and conspiring to harm the establishment’s security.

“The EU expects an immediate review of her sentence as well as the conviction of her husband Reza Khandan, who was sentenced to 6 years' imprisonment in January 2019. The European Union also expects Iran to ensure that both Mr. Khandan and Ms. Sotoudeh's right to appeal their sentences is protected,” the spokesperson for the Foreign Affairs and Security Policy of the European Union, Maja Kocijancic, said in a statement. 

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. 

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

Sotoudeh 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.