A prominent Iranian human rights lawyer has been sentenced to seven years in prison after defending protesters against the Islamic Republic’s mandatory headscarves for women.
According to Iranian news agency ISNA, Judge Mohammad Moghiseh ruled that 55-year-old lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh will spend five years in jail for “colluding against the system” and a further two years for insulting Iran‘s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
“The case has now gone to the appeal court,” Mr Moghiseh, who heads branch 28 of the Revolutionary Court, is quoted as saying. Ms Sotoudeh has 20 days to appeal the verdict. It was no clear when the sentencing took place.
Her husand Reza Khandan said on Facebook that his wife's verdict was delivered to her in jail and that it was "five years imprisonment for her first case and 33 years imprisonment with 148 lashes for the second case." He did not elaborate.
Mr Khandan was also sentenced to six years in prison in January 2019 for posting updates about his wife’s case on Facebook.
Ms Sotoudeh was arrested last June after taking on the cases of several women arrested for appearing in public without headscarves in protest at the mandatory dress code.
At the time, she was told she had already been found guilty in absentia of espionage charges and sentenced to six years by the court.
The award-winning activist’s conviction has prompted widespread condemnation, with many arguing that she was being unfairly persecuted.
Hadi Ghaemi, director of the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) said “No amount of spin will be able to conceal the fact that Sotoudeh is being persecuted for her peaceful defense of human rights in Iran, including a woman’s right to choose whether to wear a hijab,” said CHRI’s Executive Director Hadi Ghaemi.
He urged the international community to “band together to forcefully condemn the abhorrent treatment of this courageous defence lawyer and demand her release”.
Ms Sotoudeh previously served three years for representing defending opposition members after the disputed re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2009. She was released in 2013.
Additional reporting by agencies
