Iranian of the Day

ICHRI: Prominent human rights lawyer, Abdolfattah Soltani, is suffering from gastrointestinal and stomach problems in prison and is in urgent need of treatment outside the prison, yet the Iranian authorities have not agreed to transfer him to a hospital. Meanwhile, his wife who has been threatened by security forces to remain silent, has been asked to express remorse in lieu of her husband and to make confessions against him.

"My father is suffering from severe stomach and digestive system problems. After a year in prison, he was finally allowed out about two weeks ago, to undergo diagnostic medical examination and tests. According to the doctor, my father is in urgent need of treatment outside the prison, but despite my family's repeated requests to the prison authorities, he has not yet been transferred outside the prison for treatment," Maedeh Soltani, the human rights activist's daughter, told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran.

Abdolfattah Soltani was arrested on September 9, 2011. On 8 January, 2012, Branch 26 of Tehran Revolutionary Court, under Judge Pir Abbasi, charged him with receiving the Nuremberg Human Rights Award, interviewing with the media about his clients' court cases, and participation in the establishment of the Center for Human Rights Defenders. He was sentenced to 13 years in prison in exile in the City of Borazjan, and to 20 years' ban on his legal practice.

Abdolfattah Soltani, who has previously received many prestigious human rights awards, was named the recipient of the 2012 International Bar Association Human Rights Award on October 5. Mahnaz Parakand, one of his former lawyers, accompanied by Mr. Soltani's daughter who is a resident of Germany, accepted the award in his behalf in Dublin, Ireland.

Maedeh Soltani told the Campaign that her mother is under pressure by Iranian authorities. "Every time my mother went to court to pursue my mother's case, she was verbally threatened, and even a while after my father's court ruling was announced by the appeals court, the secretary of a judicial authority whose name I don't know, told my mother, 'now that your husband does not express his remorse, you can express remorse in his place.' I don't know if my mother expressed remorse instead of my father, whether he would have been released or not. But, anyhow, this was all spoken verbally," she told the Campaign.

"My mother has not talked to the media for several months now, and her contact with the media has been very limited. However, there is a lot of pressure on my mother in order to hurt my father. My mother was summoned to the court several times last year, for having accepted the Nuremberg Human Rights Award on my father's behalf, and her case is still active. She was banned from traveling abroad. In the six days that my mother was detained on this charge, her interrogators asked her to cooperate with them and to make confessions against my father. This is psychological pressure on an individual who is not at all political," Maedeh Soltani told the Campaign.

Masoumeh Dehghan, the wife of Abdolfattah Soltani, is a retired teacher who has never been a political activist. She was arrested and detained for six days in July 2011 for accepting the Nuremberg Human Rights Award on her husband's behalf. Her exact charge was, "participation in illegitimate financial gain by accepting the Human Rights Award." The Nuremberg award was given to Adolfattah Soltani, but since he was banned from traveling abroad, his wife went to Germany to accept the award. The case is still open, and Masoumeh Dehghan has been summoned to the court twice so far for this charge.

"Since my father had objections to the entirety of the trial, the charges, and the sentence, he, along with his attorneys, requested a judicial hearing, and now we are waiting for a reply. We are hoping the judges who are going to review his case at this stage are impartial, and that they review the case with fairness, justice, and objectivity. If that is the case, I am sure my father will be released." Maedeh Soltani said.