Nasrin Sotudeh

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Nasrin Sotudeh with her husband (2012)

Nasrin Sotudeh ( Persian نسرین ستوده; * May 30, 1963 in Tehran ) is an Iranian lawyer and human rights activist .

Life

Sotudeh graduated from law school in 1995, but had to wait eight years to be admitted to the bar, which is why she first worked as a journalist and wrote primarily about women's rights for reform-oriented newspapers.

Nasrin Sotudeh is married to Resa Chandan and has two children.

Work as a lawyer

Sotudeh worked as a lawyer for the Iranian Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi , who was persecuted by the Iranian judiciary and who has since exiled .

Before she was arrested, she campaigned in particular for equal rights for women in Iran. For example, she supported the One Million Signatures campaign .

Elections 2009

In particular, Sotudeh represented underage offenders on death row and arrested opposition activists who protested against the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in June 2009 . After the crackdown on the protests, which also became known in the West as the " Green Movement ", many activists fled abroad as far as possible - Sotudeh stayed. She was arrested in September 2010 after having been refused permission to travel to Italy to receive a human rights award in South Tyrol in 2008 by withholding her passport.

Her client Arasch Rahmanipur , who was sentenced to death for Mohareb (German: war against God ) , was not allowed the assistance of his lawyer on any day of the trial. Rahmanipur, 20, was finally hanged on January 28, 2010.

Arrest, sentencing and hunger strike

After she was arrested on September 22, 2010, Sotudeh has been on multiple hunger strikes . On January 9, 2011 - according to her husband - her defense attorney was informed by the trial judge, whose name has not yet been released, that Sotudeh had been involved in alleged "attacks on national security", "propaganda against the government", membership in the Center of the advocates of human rights and "violation of the Islamic dress code in a video message" was sentenced to eleven years in prison. In addition, a 20-year professional and travel ban was imposed on the lawyer. Petitions were posted on the Internet in support of her third hunger strike, which she started on December 7, 2010. She had to receive medical treatment several times in Evin Prison in Tehran.

International reactions

In December 2010, Iranian Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi called in front of the UN building in Geneva for the release of the imprisoned Iranian human rights lawyer and called on the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights , Navi Pillay , to take action against the very serious situation of political prisoners in Iran.

The human rights commissioner of the Federal Republic of Germany , Markus Löning , described the long prison sentences for Nasrin Sotudeh and the journalist Shiva Nazar Ahari as a grave injustice and demanded the immediate release of both women.

Volker Beck , then a member of the German Bundestag and spokesman for the Greens for human rights policy, demanded the immediate release of Sotudeh.

European sanctions against Iran

On January 20, 2011, the Parliament of the European Community also strongly condemned the exceptionally harsh judgment against Nasrin Sotoudeh and the intimidation measures against her husband and expressed its respect for her courage and commitment (point 2 of the resolution). The European Parliament, under item 1 of the same resolution, called on the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran to immediately and unconditionally release Nasrin Sotoudeh and all other prisoners of conscience. Furthermore, the parliament extended European sanctions (freezing of assets, entry ban) to those Iranian officials who are responsible for human rights violations , suppression and the restriction of the rights of freedom in Iran (demand 11 of the 13 point resolution).

In response to international pressure, an appeals court reduced the sentence to six years in September 2011.

Release and re-arrest

Shortly before the newly elected President Hassan Rohani visited the UN General Assembly in New York on September 25, 2013, around a dozen political prisoners were released early on September 18, 2013, including Nasrin Sotudeh. Some observers saw this as a first attempt by Rouhani to implement his election promise to allow more political freedoms in Iran in the future. Others, like Human Rights Watch , welcomed the releases but demanded that Iran must first prove that this was more than a symbolic gesture, for example by immediately taking concrete steps to secure the unconditional release of hundreds of other political prisoners. In addition, the regime must ensure that those released are not again targeted by the security forces and the judiciary.

Even after the releases, Ebadi sharply criticized Rouhani's human rights record, also with regard to a significant increase in executions since he took office, and accused the government of lying about the release of political prisoners. None of their expectations are met.

On June 13, 2018, Nasrin Sotudeh was sentenced in absentia to five years in prison and was arrested again. Before being sentenced again, Nasrin Sotoudeh worked in the defense of two young women who publicly protested against the wearing of headscarves, which was enforced by law, and who were subsequently imprisoned. Nasrin Sotudeh has been in Evin Prison in Tehran since then.

On March 6, 2019, Sotudeh was sentenced to 33 years in prison and 148 lashes . She has to serve at least 12 years from the prison term.

On August 11, 2020, Sotudeh went on a hunger strike again in prison. After her health deteriorated, she stopped the operation on September 25th. In October 2020, she was transferred from Ewin Prison to Gharchak Women's Prison. In November, she was sent on leave after 50 days of hunger strike . She returned to the women's prison on December 3, 2020, the day she was about to receive the alternative Nobel Prize; her leave was not extended.

Honors

  • In 2008 Sotudeh received the International Human Rights Award from an Italian human rights group .
  • In 2011, the imprisoned lawyer received the Florence City Council's human rights award for her resistance to legal discrimination against women, her defense of juvenile offenders sentenced to death, and her fight for gender equality in Iran.
  • In 2012, Sotudeh received, together with director Jafar Panahi , the European Parliament's Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought .
  • In 2018, Sotudeh was awarded the Swedish Tucholsky Prize for authors who were persecuted or threatened.
  • In 2020 Sotudeh will receive the human rights award from the German Association of Judges
  • In 2020 she will receive the Right Livelihood Award, endowed with one million Swedish kronor
  • On December 3, 2020, she received the alternative Nobel Peace Prize. She shares it with three other award winners. The Right Livelihood Award, commonly known as the Alternative Nobel Prize, is presented each year by the Right Livelihood Foundation. Sotudeh has to serve a politically motivated sentence in prison and sent her thanks as an audio message. 

literature

Web links

Commons : Nasrin Sotoudeh  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Taz newspaper , January 11, 2011: Portrait of Nasrin Sotudeh. Fighter for women's rights.
  2. ↑ Financial Times Deutschland, February 2, 2010: Iran's regime strikes back ( Memento from August 3, 2012 in the web archive archive.today )
  3. ^ Die Welt , January 29, 2010: Execution of opposition activists in Iran. The regime is thriving
  4. ↑ planet-iran.com, January 28, 2010: Arash Rahmanipour's Lawyer Speaks on the Executions + video (in Persian, English and German) ( Memento from October 30, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
  5. ↑ planet.iran.com, February 16, 2010: Lawyer of Executed Activist Interrogated over Media Interview ( Memento of October 30, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
  6. ↑ Al-Jazeera : Interview with the father of Arash Rahmanipour with quotes from the Attorney General Abbas Jafari Dowlatabadi
  7. ↑ feministschool.com, January 9, 2011: Nasrin Sotoudeh Sentenced to 11 years in Prison and a 20 Year Ban from Legal Practice and Travel
  8. ↑ a b gopetition.com, Roya Irani: Release human rights lawyer, Nasrin Sotoudeh, in Iran! ( Memento from March 2, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) (with photo by Nasrin Sotoudeh)
  9. ↑ Stern weekly magazine , December 20, 2010: Ebadi calls for the release of arrested Iranian lawyer ( memento of September 22, 2011 in the Internet Archive ), stern.de.
  10. ^ Deutsche Welle : Long prison sentence for Iranian activist , January 11, 2011.
  11. ↑ Volker Beck: Volker Beck's speech on the human rights situation in Iran on December 2, 2010 ( Memento from January 3, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
  12. ↑ 3sat , January 11, 2011: Imprisonment and professional ban for Nasrin Sotudeh , January 11, 2011
  13. ↑ European Parliament , January 20, 2011: European Parliament resolution of January 20, 2011 on Iran - the case of Nasrin Sotoudeh
  14. ↑ Stern, No. 50/2011, p. 123
  15. ↑ http://rt.com/news/iran-nasrin-released-jail-027/
  16. ↑ Iran frees political prisoners ahead of Hassan Rouhani's UN visit , The Guardian, September 18, 2013.
  17. ^ Nobel laureate Ebadi criticizes Rouhani and Westen , orf.at, November 5, 2013.
  18. ↑ Ebadi criticizes Rohani's Rights Record Radio Free Europe , November 6, 2013.
  19. ↑ "IRAN: President Rouhani must deliver on human rights promises" ( Memento of January 3, 2014 in the Internet Archive ), Amnesty International, November 25, 2013.
  20. ^ Nobel laureate Ebadi criticizes the human rights situation in Iran , Deutsche Welle, December 9, 2013.
  21. ↑ a b Charlotte Bachmann-Gumbs: Nasrin Sotoudeh. In: International Society for Human Rights (ISHR). Retrieved October 2, 2020 (German).
  22. ↑ a b DER SPIEGEL: Iranian human rights activist Sotudeh has to serve remaining term in women's prison - DER SPIEGEL - politics. Retrieved October 22, 2020 .
  23. ↑ Concern about Nasrin Sotoudeh on hunger strike , in: dw.com , September 2, 2020, accessed on September 10, 2020.
  24. ↑ https://www.tagesschau.de/ausland/iran-sotoudeh-113.html
  25. ↑ Nasrin Sotudeh: Imprisonment after 50 days of hunger strike for Iranian human rights activist. In: DER SPIEGEL. Retrieved November 8, 2020 .
  26. ^ Sotoudeh back in prison ], tagesschau.de, December 3, 2020.
  27. ↑ Julia's Blog, March 26, 2011: Florence honors imprisoned Iranian lawyer
  28. ↑ radio zamaneh, March 26, 2011: Florence honors jailed Iranian lawyer with human rights award
  29. ↑ Sakharov Prize goes to Iranian activists
  30. ^ German Association of Judges: Nasrin Sotudeh receives DRB human rights award. In: www.drb.de. September 2, 2020, accessed on September 2, 2020 (German).
personal data
SURNAME Sotudeh, Nasrin
ALTERNATIVE NAMES نسرین ستوده (Persian)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Iranian lawyer and human rights activist
DATE OF BIRTH May 30, 1963
PLACE OF BIRTH Tehran