Press Release: Prominent human rights lawyer detained today

Ms. NasrinSotoudeh, the celebrated human rights lawyer and 2012 laureate of theEuropean Parliament’s Sakharov Prize, was detained this morning by securityforces in the Iranian capital Tehran and taken to Evin prison. Her husband, whobroke the news, did not provide the reasons for her detention.

On 5 June 2018, Ms.Sotoudeh published a post on her Facebook page, in which she reported that sheand her daughter had objected to a car dealer transmitting religious songs fromhis shop through loudspeakers to the public. In response, the car dealerthreatened to call the police, according to Ms. Sotoudeh.

Ms. Sotoudeh wasimprisoned in September 2010. Following national and international outcry overher detention, she was released in 2013 after serving more than three years ofher six-year prison sentence. She has spoken up on different human rightsissues ever since.

She has co-founded acampaign to abolish the death penalty in Iran and has relentlessly worked tosave from execution some of the persons who had been sentenced to death forcrimes for which they were convicted allegedly committed when they werechildren.

In recent times, Ms.Sotoudeh has defended several women who had been beaten up and arrested afterpublicly demonstrating against the compulsory hijab by taking off theirheadscarves on the streets. She has also defended a number of several hundredSufi dervishes who have been persecuted and prosecuted by the authorities. Inaddition, she has spoken against the judiciary’s plans to allow only a selectedlist of its trusted lawyers to represent defendants charged with vaguesecurity-related offenses.

After her release in2013, Ms. Sotoudeh staged a nine-month sit-in protest against the suspension ofher lawyer’s licence outside the capital’s Bar Association premises, andmanaged to overturn the three-year ban on practising her legal profession.

The security and intelligenceagencies and the judiciary are said to have been actively fabricating chargesagainst Ms. Sotoudeh for some time, including in respect of her protest outsidethe Bar Association.

The Observatoryexpresses its deepest concern about today's arbitrary arrest of Ms. NasrinSotoudeh, which appears aimed at punishing her for human rights activities.

For furtherinformation, please contact:

· FIDH : MarynaChebat Tel : +33 6 48 05 91 57 e-mail: mchebat@fidh.org / Samuel Hanryon: +33 672 28 42 94 e-mail: shanryon@fidh.org

· OMCT : DelphineReculeau : +41 22 809 49 39 dr@omct.org

The Observatory for the Protection ofHuman Rights Defenders (the Observatory) was created in 1997 by FIDH and theWorld Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) The objective of this programme is tointervene to prevent or remedy situations of repression against human rightsdefenders. FIDH and OMCT are both members of ProtectDefenders.eu,the European Union Human Rights Defenders Mechanism implemented byinternational civil society.