Nasrin Sotoudeh's open letter from prison: Why I didn't appear in court

Nasrin Sotoudeh, a lawyer and human rights activist who has been arrested since June 13 and is being held in Evin Prison, wrote an open letter explaining her reasons for not appearing in court.

In this letter, which was published on Wednesday, August 21, Ms. Sotoudeh cited the illegal establishment of the District 33 Prosecutor's Office inside Evin Prison as one of these reasons, which, in her opinion, means that the security institutions have control over this prosecutor's office.

In this letter, Nasrin Sotoudeh considers the case investigator's failure to accept her right to choose a lawyer as another reason that encourages her not to appear at her court hearing.

At the same time, sixty members of the European Parliament have published an open letter to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, calling on him to use all his powers to unconditionally release Nasrin Sotoudeh.

Previously, Ms. Sotoudeh's husband, Reza Khandan, had announced that Ms. Sotoudeh would not accept the 650 million IDR bail issued for her and would remain in temporary detention in the general ward of Evin Detention Center.

Last week, Payam Darfashan, Nasrin Sotoudeh's lawyer, announced that the lawyer had been tried in absentia by Branch 28 of the Revolutionary Court and sentenced to five years in prison on charges of espionage.

Payam Darfashan, announcing the news to IRNA, said that he and Ms. Sotoudeh's other lawyers requested an appeal against the verdict, and that based on this request, Ms. Sotoudeh should be released on bail until a final verdict is issued.

According to Mr. Derfashan, the court did not accept this issue, while the indictment issued by the prosecution charged Ms. Sotoudeh with propaganda against the regime and insulting the leadership, but Branch 28 of the Revolutionary Court issued a verdict on charges of espionage.

Nasrin Sotoudeh's defense lawyer said: "When we mentioned this issue, the Evin District Court's deputy prosecutor also protested in a letter to the court president, stating that the verdict did not match the indictment, but the judge in the case responded that in the court's view, Nasrin Sotoudeh's accusation was espionage."

At the same time, Ms. Sotoudeh was summoned to the Seventh Investigation Branch of the Evin Prosecutor's Office and informed of the complaint filed by the Kashan Prosecutor's Office investigator.

A bail of 650 million Tomans was issued for these charges.

According to Payam Derfashan, another case was filed against Ms. Sotoudeh in Branch 2 of the Evin Prosecutor's Office in connection with the campaign to abolish the execution step by step, and Ms. Sotoudeh was summoned and arrested based on it.

He said: "This is while, firstly, the Legam campaign was supposed to be launched by Narges Mohammadi, who was arrested before it was launched, and secondly, nowhere in the law is it a crime to call for the gradual abolition of the death penalty."

Following the arrest of Nasrin Sotoudeh in June of this year, a spokesperson for the US State Department commented on the arrest of this lawyer and human rights defender.

Heather Nauert said the United States "commends Ms. Sotoudeh's courage and her defense of victims of the regime's ongoing oppression."

"We call on the Iranian authorities to immediately release Ms. Sotoudeh and the hundreds of others they have imprisoned simply for expressing their views and aspirations for a better life," he said.

Ms. Sotoudeh has represented defendants of conscience, detained protesters, religious minorities, and women protesting against compulsory hijab, and is among the lawyers who have called for the abolition of the death penalty in Iranian judicial systems.

Ms. Sotoudeh was sentenced in September 2008 to 11 years in prison, a 20-year ban on practicing law, and a 20-year ban on leaving the country. This sentence was reduced to 6 years in prison and 10 years of ban on practicing law in the appeals court.

He was eventually released after serving three years in prison and succeeded in overturning his conviction from practicing law.

Source: Voice of America