Iranian rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh freed: agency

Published September 18, 2013
A November 1, 2008 file photo shows Iranian lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh in Tehran. -AFP Photo
A November 1, 2008 file photo shows Iranian lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh in Tehran. -AFP Photo

TEHRAN: Iranian lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh, imprisoned for her human rights work since 2010, has been pardoned and freed from prison, the ISNA news agency reported on Wednesday.

It said other people detained after unrest that followed the disputed 2009 re-election of president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad were also released, but gave no details.

Sotoudeh had been serving an 11-year prison sentence for defending political prisoners and aiding the human rights work of Nobel peace prize winner Shirin Ebadi.

The official charge against her was “conspiring against state security”.

The mother of two young children, Sotoudeh went on a hunger strike for 49 days in October 2012 to protest against her conditions in Tehran's Evin prison, limits placed on family visits and official harassment of her relatives.

Her husband and then 12-year-old daughter were slapped with a travel ban, among other punishments.

Last year, Sotoudeh won the European parliament's prestigious Sakharov rights prize.

In January this year, she was temporarily released for three days after spending more than two years in prison after posting bail of three billion rials ($90,000), opposition website Kaleme said.

The United Nations, European Union and the world's main international human rights groups had called for Sotoudeh to be freed, calling her a prisoner of conscience.

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