05/29/2011
GVF — The first court hearing to examine whether to revoke veteran human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh’s license to practice law, was held today.
According to the women’s rights website Feminist School, on Sunday morning, Nasrin Sotoudeh was taken from Evin prison to the Iranian Bar Association where a group of lawyers including Ms. Keyhani, a member of the association’s board of directors, examined her case.
The school’s website has also reported that the jailed women’s rights activist was seen handcuffed and accompanied by a female police officer as well as two soldiers. “She appeared in the court with a smiling face while looking very confident, something that reassured those present [including] the women’s rights activists who had come to see Nasrin Sotoudeh at the Iranian Bar Association.”
In a recent letter to her husband Reza Khandan, who was also present at the court today, Sotoudeh had vowed to continue her battle to seek justice regardless of the court’s decision. “As long as these unjust sentences continue to persist, and as long as the Revolutionary Court continues to hand down shocking sentences, I shall object to these rulings with or without my license to practice law. Protesting unfair sentences does not require license. Tell them [they can] take away my license from me, but not justice!”
Sotoudeh is also known for her vocal advocacy in defence of her clients detained in the aftermath of the rigged June 2009 presidential elections in addition to interviews she gave to human rights organisations and media regarding their cases.
The writer, lawyer, and activist Nasrin Sotoudeh, is also the recipient of the 2011 PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award.
Nasrin Sotoudeh was summoned to Evin Prison Court on 4 September 2010 and was arrested and imprisoned there. In January 2010, she was sentenced to 11 years in prison, with a twenty-year ban on being professionally active and a twenty-year travel ban on charges of “acting against national security,” “colluding and propagating against the Islamic Republic of Iran,” and “membership in the Defenders of Human Rights Centre.”
In addition to being denied the right to see her two young children. Sotoudeh’s husband has also been harassed by the authorities and briefly imprisoned for supporting her.
