Iranian lawyer and human rights defender Nasrin Sotoudeh, sentenced to 12 years in detention in 2019, was released from prison on Saturday (November 7th) after being granted a temporary authorization, the official news agency of the Authority reported. judicial.
Her husband Reza Khandan later confirmed on Twitter that she had left prison. “Folks, Nasrin got out a few minutes ago” from prison, he said.
The UN called in October for the release of Ms. Sotoudeh, 2012 co-winner of the Sakharov Prize awarded by the European Parliament, as well as other detainees considered to be political prisoners, who were not released like others in due to the novel coronavirus epidemic. “Nasrin Sotoudeh (…) was released on a temporary basis with the approval of the prosecutor in charge of women’s prisons”, indicated the Mizan Online agency, without giving further details.
A hunger strike lasting more than 45 days
The activist was sentenced in 2019 to 12 years in prison, after defending a woman arrested for demonstrating against the obligation for Iranian women to wear the veil. Until recently, she was held in Evin prison, north of Tehran, with other political prisoners, including French researcher Fariba Adelkhah, released in early October with an electronic bracelet. In October, she was transferred to Qarchak prison, more than 30 km south of the capital, when her family insisted that she be hospitalized. According to her husband, health problems led the 57-year-old activist to end a hunger strike of more than 45 days to obtain the release of political detainees during the epidemic.
Since March, more than 100,000 Iranian detainees have been granted temporary absences or reduced sentences in order to limit the spread of the Covid-19 disease in prisons. In early October, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, noted that most of the people who have been arbitrarily detained in Iran – including binationals, foreign nationals, human rights defenders, lawyers, environmentalists and other prisoners of conscience – had been excluded from the guidelines on these temporary releases.
In a country where the prison system suffers from “chronic overcrowding and poor sanitary conditions”, these people have been exposed to an increased risk of contracting the coronavirus, she added. “I am very worried to know that the life of Nasrin Sotoudeh is in danger”, she said, urging the authorities to release her “immediately”.
The pandemic has killed more than 37,000 people in Iran out of more than 670,000 infected, according to official figures released on Saturday.
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