New Case for Human Rights Lawyer: Nasrin Sotoudeh Tried in Absentia on Espionage Charges

Nasrin Sotoudeh, a lawyer and human rights activist, has been tried in absentia by Branch 28 of the Revolutionary Court and sentenced to five years in prison on espionage charges.

Peyam Darfshan, Sotoudeh’s lawyer, announced the news to IRNA news agency on Tuesday, August 23, stating that he and other lawyers representing Ms. Sotoudeh have filed an appeal requesting that she be released on bail pending a final ruling. According to Darfshan, the court rejected this request.

Darfshan noted that while the indictment issued by the prosecutor’s office charged Ms. Sotoudeh with propaganda against the system and insulting the Supreme Leader, Branch 28 of the Revolutionary Court issued a verdict charging her with espionage instead.

Sotoudeh’s defense lawyer said: “When we raised this issue, the execution official at Evin Prosecutor’s Office also protested in a letter to the court head, stating that the verdict does not match the indictment. However, the judge responded that from the court’s perspective, Nasrin Sotoudeh’s charge is espionage.”

Simultaneously, Ms. Sotoudeh was summoned to the Seventh Branch of Evin Prosecutor’s Office, and a complaint filed by the Kashan Prosecutor was announced to her.

For these charges, a bail of 650 million tomans was issued.

According to Peyam Darfshan, another case has been opened against Ms. Sotoudeh at the Second Branch of Evin Prosecutor’s Office regarding the campaign to abolish capital punishment step by step. Ms. Sotoudeh was summoned and detained based on this case.

He stated: “This is despite the fact that first, the step-by-step abolition campaign was supposed to be launched by Narges Mohammadi, who was arrested before launching it, and second, there is no provision in any law criminalizing the request for gradual abolition of the death penalty.”

Following Nasrin Sotoudeh’s arrest in June this year, the U.S. State Department spokesperson expressed concern about the detention of this lawyer and human rights defender.

Hether Nauert said the United States “praises Ms. Sotoudeh’s courage and her defense of the victims of the regime’s ongoing oppression.”

She stated: “We urge Iranian authorities to immediately release Ms. Sotoudeh and hundreds of others who have been imprisoned solely for expressing their views and their aspirations for a better life.”

Ms. Sotoudeh has represented ideological defendants, detained protesters, religious minorities, and women protesting mandatory hijab, and is among lawyers who have called for the abolition of capital punishment from Iran’s judicial sentences.

In September 2010, Ms. Sotoudeh was sentenced to 11 years imprisonment, 20 years deprivation of practicing law, and 20 years ban on leaving the country. This sentence was reduced to six years imprisonment and 10 years deprivation of practicing law by the appeals court.

She was eventually released after serving three years in prison and managed to have her disbarment ruling reversed.

Source: Voice of America