GENEVA: The UN human rights chief on Tuesday expressed concern about a new “crackdown” on lawyers and human rights defenders in Iran, including an attorney for a woman sentenced to death by stoning for adultery.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, also highlighted the case of lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh, who staged a hunger strike for several weeks after her arrest on September 4, as well as several other people associated with exiled Nobel peace laureate Shirin Ebadi.
Sotoudeh was reportedly being held in solitary confinement in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison and appeared in court on November 15, according to Pillay’s office.
“I am very concerned that Nasrin Sotoudeh’s case is part of a much broader crackdown, and that the situation of human rights defenders in Iran is growing more and more difficult,” Pillay said in a statement.
“I urge the Iranian authorities to review her case urgently and expedite her release.”
A spokesman for the High Commissioner, Rupert Colville, said that other cases included a defence lawyer for Sakineh Mohammadi-Ashtiani, whose pending death sentence by stoning sparked international outrage.
