Nasrin Sotoudeh “I will not attend such visitations again”

In a letter addressed to judicial authorities and the head of the prosecutor’s office at Evin prison, Nasrin Sotoudeh, lawyer, political prisoner and human rights activists announced that in protest to the inhumane and unacceptable manner in which her children, husband and sister were treated during their last visitation, leading to their detention for a period of several hours, she has decided to refrain from any such visitations in order to protect her children from any further harm.

According to reports by Kaleme, in a letter addressed to the head of the Judiciary and the head of the prosecutor’s office at Evin prison, Sotoudeh announced that since the most fearful prosecutorial office in Iran, illegally detained her two young children, husband and sister last week, taking them hostage for several hours, in order to avoid such harm on her children she prefers not to attend such visits moving forward.

Sotoudeh also reiterated: “In the past year, my family has been repeatedly punished, take for example the legal case against my husband. In order to protest the violations against my families rights, given the current structure of the visitations and the constant presence of security officers and Intelligence Ministry agents will only cause further harm on my young children, I have decided to refrain from attending such visitations until my family’s reputation has been completely restored and telephone contact at the Women’s Ward at Evin has is once again reinstated – a right that should be afforded to every prisoner and their children.”

On Sunday August 7th, 2011 altercations occurred between the prison authorities and Nasrin Sotoudeh’s sister and husband Reza Khandan during a cabin visitation when authorities insisted on searching Khandan’s notebook without an official search warrant. The unfortunate behavior by prison authorities took place in front of the children and the entire family was taken to the prosecutor’s office at Evin and detained for approximately 5 hours. Mehraveh and Nima, Sotoudeh’s two children witnessed the altercation between their father and aunt and the prison authorities. They were exhausted and hungry after endless hours of waiting in the visitation area. Mehraveh (10 years old) was unable to refrain from crying in front of her mother for the first time in 15 months. The family was finally released after an official search warrant was issued by the judge and the personal belongings of the family, including the notebook in question were searched. [Translator's note: It goes without saying that nothing extraordinary was found.]

Nasrin Sotoudeh, lawyer and human rights activist has been behind bars for approximately one year without furlough. During this time, she has only been allowed to see her two young children, through sporadic 20 minute visitations. Her husband Reza Khandan who has never been politically active was arrested for one night after following up on his wife’s case. Khandan was later released on bail. Sotoudeh has been sentenced to 11 years in prison.

Source: Banooyesabz