GENEVA (21 June 2021) – UN human rights experts* today condemned the continued imprisonment of woman human rights defender and lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh, and called for her immediate release.
“Nasrin Sotoudeh has been systematically criminalised for her work in defence of human rights, particularly the rights of women who oppose compulsory veiling laws,” Dubravka Simonovic, UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women, said.
Ms. Sotoudeh has been detained since June 2018, and was sentenced to a combined 38 years imprisonment on nine charges, including “encouraging corruption and prostitution”, in connection to her work defending women arrested for peacefully protesting compulsory veiling laws. Under Iranian law, she will need to serve 12 years in prison, the longest of her sentences.