Iranian human rights lawyer and activist Abdolfattah Soltani has been sentenced to 13 years in jail by a Tehran Revolutionary Court.
Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) reports that Soltani's 13 year sentence was confirmed at the branch 54 of the Revolutionary Court and will have to be served in exile.
Maede Soltani, who resides in Germany, told AP that the sentence was “politically motivated” and that her father was told that his sentence would be reduced “if he were to apologize and speak out against Ms. Ebadi [Iranian Nobel Peace laureate Shirin Ebadi] in an open letter or an interview.”
Abdolfattah Soltani, like Ebadi, is one of the co-founders of the Defenders of Human Rights Centre (DHRC) in Iran, an NGO providing pro bono legal services in human rights cases. The centre is currently outlawed in Iran, and its members are all targets of continuous persecution.
Soltani will be exiled to the remote city of Borazjan to serve out his sentence, making it hard for his family to visit him.
Soltani;s charges included "propanada against the regime, founding the Defenders of Human Rights Centre, and assembly and collusion against national security." He is also charged with "collecting pelf" for receiving the Nuremberg Human Rights award in 2009.
Soltani’s arrest and sentencing have been condemned by Amnesty International, which has called for his immediate release.
Jailed journalist transferred as part of prison crackdown
Bahman Ahmadi Amouyi, a jailed Iranian journalist, has been transferred to Rejai Shahr Prison in Karaj.
Advar News reports that after Evin Prison guards attacked section 350 of that prison last night and transferred six prisoners to solitary confinement, at 1 AM they moved Ahmadi Amouyi to Rejai Shahr Prison in Karaj.
Ahmadi Amouyi was reportedly transferred in shackles and was not even allowed to get his belongings from his cell.
The Kaleme website has also reported that Ahmadi Amouyi was insulted and strip-searched at Rejai Shahr Prison and then was transferred to its quarantine section.
The prisoners at Evin were reportedly planning to hold a ceremony on the anniversary of the 2009 election protests and also the death of Hoda Saber, a political prisoner who died last night after going on a hunger strike. The prison officials reportedly halted those plans and transferred six prisoners to solitary confinement and later transferred Ahmadi Amouyi to Karaj.
Source: Radio Zamaneh