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Shirin Ebadi also reacted to recent statements made by Mohammad Javad Larijani, Head of Iran’s Human Rights Council. “Mr. Larijani who heads the Human Rights Council of the Iranian Judiciary, stated in one of the last interviews he had outside Iran that he had been willing to “compromise” in the area of human rights, but as the US and the west are referring to the human rights issue too much, they, too, will enter “the human rights war. Those who use vocabulary such as “confront,” “contention,” and “war” about human rights, who that they have fundamentally missed the meaning of human rights. This individual cannot fill such a position within the Judiciary, unless this position has been given to him as gift because of his family relation to the Head of the Judiciary,” she said.

“So far as human rights is concerned, we can only have a dialogue about it, and review issues through dialogue. Those responsible for human rights cannot say “henceforth we will enter a human rights war,” or “now we will enter human rights contention. …Mr. Larijani said that Ms. Sotoudeh was not arrested because of her profesion as a lawyer, but that her actions were against national security. He stated that lawyers must only walk up and down the court corridors. I agree with the last part of Mr. Larijani’s statement, as the Judiciary has lost its independence and the judges have no accountability; therefore lawyers wander the corridors of the courts. It is... >>>