Iran urged to end harassment of lawyer's family

Amnesty International has called on Iran to end the harassment of the husband and the 12-year-old daughter of Nasrin Sotoudeh, the jailed human rights lawyer.

Iranian authorities have recently informed Sotoudeh's husband, Reza Khandan, and their daughter, Mehraveh, that they are subject to a travel ban. Iranian websites also cited Khandan as saying that they have both been summoned to the court.

Activists have described the move as politically motivated and say it is aimed at putting pressure on Sotoudeh who is believed be to under duress to make confessions against her activities. She is serving a six-year jail term in Tehran.

Despite the ban, Khandan has claimed that they did not have any plans to leave Iran. The country has signed international treaties which ban it from summoning a child to judicial court.

"Imposing a travel ban on Nasrin Sotoudeh's young daughter and her husband is a gesture, clearly intended to force her family to stop campaigning for her release," said Ann Harrison, Amnesty's deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa.

"The Iranian authorities must not only lift the travel ban and stop harassing Nasrin Sotoudeh's family but also release Nasrin Sotoudeh immediately and unconditionally, as she is a prisoner of conscience, imprisoned solely for the peaceful expression of her beliefs and for her legitimate human rights work."

Sotoudeh, 45, has defended several political activists arrested in the aftermath of Iran's 2009 disputed presidential elections as well as juvenile offenders.

She was arrested in September 2010 on a series of charges including "acting against the national security" and "propaganda against the regime" and sentenced to 11 years in jail but had her prison term reduced to six last September. An inmate of Tehran's notorious Evin prison, she is among clients she defended in court.

"Prison authorities have repeatedly placed her in solitary confinement and blocked her children from visiting, including in February this year, apparently because prison guards considered Mehraveh Khandan's school uniform did not fully comply with the state-imposed dress code," according to Amnesty.

In mid-June, a video emerged of Sotoudeh, showing her meeting her two children in jail for the first time in several months. In the video, which only shows few moments of that reunion, Sotoudeh is speaking through a partition to her son, Nima, while Mehraveh stands nearby sobbing quietly.

"The harassment of Nasrin Sotoudeh's family – who are standing up for her rights while she is unjustly imprisoned - is yet another sign of Iran's overall deteriorating human rights situation," added Harrison.

- THE GUARDIAN