Lawyer Defending Azerbaijani Activist Arrested by Judiciary in Ardabil
Seyyed Mohammad Reza Faqihi, a practicing lawyer based in Tehran and one of the defense attorneys for Abbas Lasani, an Azerbaijani (Turkic) activist, has been arrested.
An informed source told Voice of America that the lawyer was arrested on Sunday, October 19th, when he reported to the Ardabil Prosecutor’s Office in response to a summons previously issued by Judge Nonohale, Deputy Prosecutor of Ardabil, and was transferred to an undisclosed location.
The informed source told Voice of America that detailed information about the reasons for the arrest and charges against Mr. Faqihi is not yet available, but this Tehran-based lawyer had previously been repeatedly threatened by Ardabil judicial authorities that if he did not withdraw from representing Abbas Lasani’s case, he would face serious consequences.
According to information received by Voice of America, Ardabil judicial authorities have thus far refused to accept bail for the release of this lawyer, and it has been reported that no decision has been made regarding his release at this time.
Seyyed Mohammad Reza Faqihi, a lawyer and member of the board of directors of the Committee for the Defense of Prisoners’ Rights, has voluntarily represented the cases of dozens of prisoners, including political and ideological prisoners in Iran over the past years, and has been repeatedly interrogated in this regard and asked to withdraw from representing political and ideological prisoners’ cases.
This is not the first time a lawyer has been arrested for accepting representation of political and ideological prisoners. Previously, Amir Salar Davudi, a grade one practicing lawyer who has represented several political and ideological prisoners in recent years, including Soheil Arabi, was arrested on November 20th of last year when prosecutors visited his office, and in early August was sentenced to 30 years in prison by Judge Selavati, head of Branch 15 of the Revolutionary Court.
Mohammad Najafi, a lawyer and human rights activist imprisoned in Arak Prison, was also arrested in 2017 following disclosure of information about Vahid Heidari, one of the December protesters that year who died in detention in Arak.
This lawyer was released on April 1st of this year with a “pardon” while serving his three-year sentence on charges of propaganda activities in favor of groups and organizations opposed to the system and insulting the leadership in Arak Prison; however, only four days after his release, he was transferred to Arak Central Prison to serve his ten-year sentence in connection with December 2017 events and charged with “cooperation with hostile states.”
Source: Voice of America
