Iran Breaking: Attorney Nasrine Sotoudeh Sentenced to 11 Years in Prison
Sunday, January 9, 2011 at 19:07
Scott Lucas in EA Iran, Middle East and Iran

From the Committee of Human Rights Reporters, translated by the Facebook page supporting Nasrine Sotoudeh:

The 26th Branch of the Revolutionary Court under Judge Pir Abassi has sentenced Nasrin Sotoudeh to 11 years in prison and banned her from practicing law and leaving the country for 20 years. 

Reza Khandan, Sotoudeh's husband, told CHRR: "This sentence was delivered to my wife's lawyer Nasim Ghanavi and we now have 20 days to request an appeal." 

According to Khandan, this sentence was issued even though Nasrin Sotoudeh was expecting a lighter sentence and was as such in good spirits during their last visitation...Given the nature of the charges against her, Sotoudeh has been issued the heaviest sentence possible Khandan added, "My wife received one year imprisonment for "propaganda against the regime and five years each for the other two charges against her: acting against the national security of the country and"violating the Islamic dress code (Hejab) in a filmed speech." 

Other reports indicate that Nasim Ghanavi, Sotoudeh's lawyer and her husband Reza Khandan were summoned to the Revolutionary Court.  Khandan made the following statement regarding this matter: "I have been asked to appear at Branch 1 of the Revolutionary Court. In the written summons, the word 'defendant' was used when referring to me. Of course I was also summoned once about ten to twelve days before my wife was arrested and at the time I was warned about the interviews I had given."

Nasrin Sotoudeh was arrested on September 22nd, 2010 and has been in solitary confinement since. Her trial took place on November 15th, 2010 at the 26th branch of the Revolutionary Court under Judge Pir Abass,i and she was first charged with "acting against the national security of the country" and "propaganda against the regime."  Sotoudeh was later also charged with "violating the Islamic dress code in a filmed speech." Sotoudeh has spent a large portion of her incarceration on hunger strike. 

Nasrin Sotoudeh, lawyer and winner of the Human Rights Award from the International Human Rights Organization, is also a member of the Defenders of Human Rights, the Million Signature Campaign to Change Discriminatory Laws Against Women, and the Society for Protecting the Rights of Children. In her capacity as legal counsel, Sotoudeh has represented many of the human rights activists, women's rights activists, child victims, victims of child abuse, and children risking execution. 

In 2008, Sotoudeh was awarded the Human Rights Prize by the International Committee on Human Rights. She has been threatened on numerous occasions because of her human rights activism and had been warned to forego providing legal counsel to [Nobel Prize laureate] Shirin Ebadi.

 

Source: http://www.chrr.biz/spip.php?article12516

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