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Iranian human-rights lawyer Abdolfattah Soltani was arrested in Tehran earlier this month—re-arrested, actually. This was Mr. Soltani's third detention since 2005. Sometimes Tehran files charges and sometimes—as currently appears to be the case for Mr. Soltani—it doesn't bother.

Mr. Soltani's only crime is that he defends Iran's persecuted Bahais, who form the country's largest religious minority. Mr. Soltani, along with Nobel Laureate Shirin Ebadi, co-founded Iran's Centre for Human Rights Defenders, which Tehran shut down in 2008.

When he was arrested this month, Mr. Soltani had been preparing to represent a number of detained Bahais who had been detained for their work at the Bahai Institute for Higher Education. This informal initiative gives young Bahais a chance to study, since Iran bars them from university for their beliefs.

Mr. Soltani's arrest is only the latest in a disturbing trend. In the last several months, dozens of Iranian lawyers have been detained or imprisoned. Mohammad Mostafaei, who has defended dozens of clients from death sentences, fled Iran last year. He had been defending Sakineh Ashtiani, the woman who had been sentenced to death by stoning until an international outcry secured her a stay of execution. For his troubles, Mr. Mostafaei and his family had been detained and harassed, until he finally left the country in August 2010. His replacement, Houtan Kian, did not... >>>