ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Iran must immediately release a jailed human rights lawyer whose health has deteriorated in a weeks-long hunger strike, a branch of an international organisation advocating for free expression has said.
Nasrin Sotoudeh is in a "critical condition", her husband said on Thursday, after beginning a hunger strike on August 11 in pursuit of better prison conditions and the release of political prisoners amid the coronavirus pandemic.
"PEN America calls for her and other political prisoners' immediate release and for an end to judicial and legal harassment of her and her family," read a statement released Friday by PEN America, the largest branch of PEN International.
“Nasrin has spent her life advocating for the human rights of Iranians, particularly women...Her life hangs in the balance. We call on the government of Iran to rescind the unjust sentences meted out to Nasrin and other political prisoners," said PEN America’s Director of Free Expression at Risk Programs Karin Deutsch Karlekar.
Sotoudeh was arrested on June 2018, charged with 'propaganda against the state,' 'assembly and collusion to act against national security,' 'appearing at the judiciary without Islamic hijab,' 'encouraging prostitution,' and 'promoting immorality and indecency,' according to PEN. After two trials, she was sentenced to 38 years and six months in prison, and 148 lashes. She is serving her sentence at Tehran's Evin Prison, a facility notorious for the violation of detainee rights. Under Iranian law, she must serve at least 12 years.
Sotoudeh's husband Reza Khandan said in an August 27 Facebook post that his wife's health was at its worst point since her hunger strike began, and included relentless nausea and fluctuations in her blood pressure. On August 19, one week into Sotoudeh's hunger strike, Khandan said that she had been taken to Evin's clinic for treatment.
The 57-year-old human rights lawyer already suffers from chronic gastrointestinal and foot problems, Khandan told AP at the beginning of the hunger strike.
Worries for Sotoudeh's health are compounded by the coronavirus pandemic that has gripped Iran since February. Iran has recorded over 300,000 coronavirus cases since the outbreak began, and over 21,000 related deaths – making it one of the world's worst-impacted countries.
Governments all over the world said they would be furloughing prisoners from overcrowded detention facilities as the pandemic began to take hold. Iran has furloughed tens of thousands of inmates, but said political prisoners would not qualify for the temporary release.
Using leaked official letters, Amnesty International reported in July that the Iranian government had ignored repeated warnings by senior prison officials for help controlling the spread of COVID-19 and treating prisoners.
In what Iranian human rights groups said was a bid to force an end to the hunger strike, Soutoudeh's daughter Mehraveh Khandan was arrested at her Tehran home on August 17. Arrested on charges of "insult and assault", the 20-year-old was later released on bail, the Center for Human Rights in Iran reported.
Sotoudeh previously served three years at Evin, having been charged and convicted for 'spreading propaganda against the system' and 'acting against national security', according to Amnesty. She was released in 2014.
