ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Independent UN experts on Friday called for the “immediate release” of prominent human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh after she was returned to Tehran’s notorious Evin prison earlier this week.
“It is unfathomable that the Iranian authorities would return Ms. Sotoudeh to prison where she is at heightened risk to COVID-19, as well as with her serious heart condition,” the experts said in an official statement.
Sotoudeh, 57, was hospitalised after undergoing a hunger strike for more than 40 days against prison conditions amid the coronavirus pandemic. Her husband said she was returned to Evin on Wednesday “without medical intervention.”
“This act has no meaning other [than] putting her life in danger,” Reza Khandan tweeted.
Sotoudeh suffers from a range of chronic health problems, her husband previously told AFP.
Many human rights defenders and dual Iranian nationals have been denied temporary release under a scheme brought on by the coronavirus pandemic, which has hit Iran particularly hard.
More than 40 countries called on Iran to “protect the human rights of all its citizens and release all political prisoners and arbitrarily detained” in a Friday session of the UN Human Rights Council, according to a German official.
Joint Statement on the dire human rights situation in Iran today in the Human Rights Council #HRC45, presented by Germany on behalf of 47 countries. We call on Iran to protect the human rights of all its citizens and release all political prisoners & arbitrarily detained.
— Susanne Baumann (@GERMANYonUN) September 25, 2020
Sotoudeh was most recently arrested in June 2018 for representing women participating in demonstrations against compulsory hijab laws. She is also known for representing Kurdish prisoners and other ethnic minorities.
In March 2019, she was convicted on “vaguely defined national security charges” carrying up to thirty-eight years in prison, according to Human Rights Watch.
She previously served three years at Evin, having been charged and convicted for 'spreading propaganda against the system' and 'acting against national security', according to rights group Amnesty International. She was released in 2014.
“For years Sotoudeh has been on the legal front lines, defending Iranians who dare to question the Islamic republic’s archaic laws and their arbitrary enforcement,” Jason Rezaian, a journalist formerly imprisoned in Evin wrote on Tuesday.
UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders Mary Lawlor also called for her release on Friday.
“She has a serious heart disease and should be released immediately,” Lawlor tweeted in Persian.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves le Drian expressed worry about her condition earlier this week.
“We are very worried about Nasrin Sotoudeh’s health,” the minister told the French Parliament on Tuesday.
Iran has come under fire in recent weeks over its record of arbritary detention and execution. On Thursday, the US announced sanctions against a judge over the execution of 27-year-old wrestler Navid Afkari, whose death earlier this month sparked international outcry.
