Reporters Without Borders condemns arrest of human rights lawyer

GVF -- The media watchdog Reporters Without Borders has condemned the arrest of Nasrin Sotoudeh, a lawyer who has been the legal representative of many imprisoned journalists in Iran.

Sotoudeh was arrested on 5 September on charges of anti-government propaganda and conspiring against the establishment after referring to a revolutionary court prosecutor’s office located in Tehran’s Evin prison following a summoning.

“Nasrin Sotoudeh has for the past year been the spokesperson of the victims of injustice, of those the regime is trying to silence,” Reporters Without Borders said. “Detained journalists and other political prisoners are denied their most basic rights. Lawyers cannot visit their detained clients or see their case files. Now the repression is being stepped up a notch. By arresting lawyers, the regime is trying to gag the last dissenting voices. Lawyers’ organisations throughout the world must demand this courageous lawyer’s immediate release.”

Political prisoners such as Issa Saharkhiz and Mohammad Sadegh Kaboudvand are among the individuals represented by Sotoudeh. She has been interrogated and threatened on many occasions, but has nevertheless continued to take a stand against the arbitrary and illegal arrests of dissidents following the rigged presidential election of June 2009.

According to RSF when Sotoudeh’s office was searched and shut down on 28 August, she said: “Their aim is to rid the country of its human rights defenders.”