Posts Tagged ‘Reza Khandan’

Does G7 set a precedent with Sotoudeh for inviting human rights defenders?

March 11, 2019
Radio Farda on 8 March 2019 reported that France’s President Macron has decided to invite jailed Iranian Human Rights Defender Nasrin Sotoudeh to the G7 Council. This is an excellent idea that deserves follow-up in other such forums. There are quite a few laureates of human rights awards who are in detention or subject to a travel ban. An invitation from a group of important world leaders is hard to ignore!

My first suggestions are:

https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2019/01/29/eren-keskin-mea-nominee-2019-speaks-out-fearlessly-turkey-more-oppressive-today-than-ever/

https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2017/10/10/breaking-news-egyptian-defender-mohammed-zaree-laureate-of-the-martin-ennals-award-2017/

https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2015/09/15/fly-emirates-if-the-emirs-let-you/

Imprisoned Iranian lawyer and human rights activist Nasrin Sotoudeh adjusts her scarf at her house in Tehran, September 18, 2013
Imprisoned Iranian lawyer and human rights activist Nasrin Sotoudeh adjusts her scarf at her house in Tehran, September 18, 2013

French President Emmanuel Macron has invited jailed Iranian human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh to take part in the G7 gender equality forum. Sotoudeh’s husband Reza Khandan told Radio Farda on Friday that Macron’s invitation has been given to him in Tehran on Thursday March 7, one day before the International Women’s Day.[see also: https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2018/06/16/iranian-human-rights-lawyer-nasrin-sotoudeh-arrested-again/]

Ms. Sotoudeh is to be a member of the consultative council for gender equality in Group 7. Khandan said Iranian women should be proud of Soutoudeh’s membership in the G7 council. Copies of the invitation have been handed to the Iranian Foreign Ministry and Bar Association.

Nasrin Sotoudeh has been in Jail since June 2018 with a five-year imprisonment sentence and is facing more charges for defending human rights activists in Iran. She is an outspoken opponent of the death penalty and compulsory hijab.  Sotoudeh, 55, is the winner of numerous international awards, including PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write (2011), Southern Illinois University School of Law Rule of Law Citation (2011) and Sakharov Prize (2012). On 21 September 2018, she was awarded the 23rd Ludovic-Trarieux International Human Rights Prize.

https://en.radiofarda.com/a/france-s-macron-invites-jailed-iranian-human-rights-lawyer-to-g7-council-/29811115.html

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2018 will go down in history as a year of shame for Iran

January 24, 2019

On 23 January 2019 RFE/RL reported that Iranian human rights defender Reza Khandan got a six-tear prison sentence. The next day Amnesty International issued a damning overview of the situation of human rights defenders in that country: Iran arrested more than 7,000 people in a sweeping crackdown against protesters and dissidents in the past year. See more below:

Rez Khandan with his wife, Nasrin Sotoudeh, in Tehran in 2013
Rez Khandan with his wife, Nasrin Sotoudeh, in Tehran in 2013

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Iranian human rights lawyer, Nasrin Sotoudeh, arrested – again

June 16, 2018

 

Iranian lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh next to her husband Reza Khandan | Behrouz Mehri/AFP via Getty Images

 

On 13 June 2018, Nasrin Sotoudeh, the human rights defender was arrested at her home in Tehran, Iran. She was transferred to prosecutor’s office of Evin prison.  Nasrin Sotoudeh https://www.frontlinedefenders.org/en/profile/nasrin-sotoudeh  is a prominent human rights lawyer who in recent months has acted as the lawyer for women’s rights activists who protested against the compulsory veiling in Iran and were subsequently prosecuted. According to her husband, Reza Khandan, Nasrin Sotoudeh was informed that she will be imprisoned for five years, however neither of them are aware of the charges against her.  

In 2010, Nasrin Sotoudeh was given a prison sentence of eleven years and banned from working as a lawyer or leaving the country for twenty years. Nasrin Sotoudeh remained in prison for three years under charges of ‘spreading propaganda’ and ‘conspiring to harm state security’, designed to force her to stop her legitimate and peaceful human rights activities. Nasrin Sotoudeh was finally released in September 2013 after receiving a pardon. Prior to her detention, Nasrin Sotoudeh represented many human rights defenders opposed to the current regime in Iran, and worked extensively with young prisoners who had been sentenced to death for crimes they committed when they were under 18. In 2012 she won the EU’s Sakharov award {http://thedigestapp.trueheroesfilms.org/publicpage#/awards/BDE3E41A-8706-42F1-A6C5-ECBBC4CDB449/Sakharov-Prize-for-Freedom-of-Thought]

 see also: https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2015/07/08/portrait-of-nasrin-sotoudeh-in-iran-activism-with-a-defiant-smile/

————- 

https://www.politico.eu/article/nasrin-sotoudeh-european-politicians-call-on-iran-to-release-eu-prize-winner/

https://www.voanews.com/a/iran-re-arrests-human-rights-lawyer-rights-groups-outraged/4438948.html

https://www.alaraby.co.uk/english/news/2018/6/14/irans-renowned-rights-lawyer-sotoudeh-arrested-husband

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Glimmer of hope in Iran: Nasrin Sotoudeh’s ban to practice overruled

September 6, 2014

NASRIN_SOTOUDEH_PORTRAIT The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran reports on 5 September that the Lawyers’ Court denied the Tehran Prosecutor’s Office request for the suspension of Sotoudeh’s license to practice, and stated in a ruling that, “In the opinion of the Lawyer’s Court, Ms. Sotoudeh’s temporary suspension was unwarranted and will be overruled”. According to this ruling Ms. Sotoudeh can continue her profession as a lawyer says her husband Reza Khandan on Facebook.

[Prominent lawyer and human rights defender Nasrin Sotoudeh – final nominee of the MEA in 2012 and winner of the Sakharov prize- was arrested on September 4, 2010. A lower court sentenced her to 11 years in prison, a 20-year ban on her legal practice, and a 20-year ban on foreign travel, on charges of “acting against national security,” “propaganda against the state,” and “membership in the Human Rights Defenders Center.” An appeals court reduced her sentence to six years in prison and a 10-year ban on her legal practice. After almost three years in prison, Nasrin Sotoudeh was released on September 18, 2013. Upon release, Nasrin Sotoudeh objected to the ruling by the Tehran Revolutionary Court to suspend her license to practice law, asserting the Court’s lack of jurisdiction over this matter. She subsequently renewed her license and announced that she would continue her legal practice. However, judges have refused to allow her to appear in court to represent her clients.]

via Ten-Year Ban on Nasrin Sotoudeh’s Legal Practice Overruled: Prominent Human Rights Lawyer Returns to Law : International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran.

for more posts on Sotoudeh: https://thoolen.wordpress.com/tag/nasrin-sotoudeh/

 

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Sotoudeh finally allowed brief visit by family

November 16, 2012

According to Iranian blogger Arseh Sevom writing today the young children of detained lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh, nominee of the 2012 MEA, were finally allowed to visit their mother in prison on Monday 12 November with security forces present. Referring to her mother’s health conditions as a result of the continuous hunger strike, Mehraveh said: “She has lost weight and is taken to the infirmary on occasion.”

Sotoudeh’s husband Reza Khandan wrote [in farsi]: “Today, right after he stepped out of the jail’s gate, Nima [their son] took away the kiss from his cheek and put it on mine saying that mom said keep this kiss and give it to daddy when you see him”. Two days before the visit, Khandan and his two children waited for three and a half hours to visit their wife and mother, but were denied access

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