Iranian lawyer who defended women gets 7 years
Nasrin Sotoudeh given a five-year sentence for plotting against the state and two more years for insulting Supreme Leader Khamenei
TEHRAN, Iran — A semi-official Iranian news agency said Monday a prominent human rights lawyer was sentenced to seven years in prison after she defended protesters against the Islamic Republic’s mandatory headscarves for women.
Monday’s report by ISNA says Judge Mohammad Moghiseh handed 55-year-old Nasrin Sotoudeh a five year sentence for plotting against the state and two more years for insulting Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
It’s unclear when the sentencing took place.
Last week the New York-based Center for Human Rights in Iran said Sotoudeh, a prominent human rights lawyer in Iran who defended women protesting against the Islamic Republic’s mandatory headscarf, was been convicted and faces years in prison.
The headscarf, or hijab, is mandatory for all women in Iran.
Sotoudeh was convicted in absentia by a Revolutionary Court. She is currently held at Tehran’s Evin prison. She previously served three years in prison for her work and was released in 2013.
In 2014 the court banned her from practicing law for three years. At the time, Sotoudeh said that the Iranian Bar Association had been under pressure to cancel her license since she was released from jail the previous year.
Sotoudeh was awarded the European Parliament Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought in 2012 along with another Iranian activist for her work defending opposition activists and juveniles facing the death penalty.
Sotoudeh was arrested again last June. She has 20 days to appeal the verdict.
