Iran’s judiciary and prison authorities should end mistreatment of the prominent rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh, Nobel peace laureate Shirin Ebadi and six human rights organizations said today. Ebadi and the rights groups also called on Iran’s authorities to allow all prisoners access to necessary medical care and family visits to which they are entitled under international human rights law.
Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, Reporters Without Borders (RSF), the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), and the Iranian League for the Defence of Human Rights (LDDHI), joined by Ebadi, renewed their call on authorities to quash the peaceful activists’ convictions and release them unconditionally.
“Journalists, human rights lawyers and rights defenders held solely on account of their peaceful activities – none of these people should be in prison in the first place,” said Ebadi. “Bullying a prisoner’s child or denying the person family visits and medical care only makes Iran look even worse in the eyes of the world.”
