A human rights lawyer has been jailed for 33 years after she represented protesters who removed their headscarves in public and shared the photos on social media.
55-year-old Nasrin Sotoudeh, a prominent Iranian lawyer, was handed a sentence which her husband said was 148 lashes and 33 years in jail.
She represented women protesting against the Islamic Republic’s mandatory headscarves for women. Many of the protesters recorded themselves removing the garment and shared it on social media.
Sotoudeh was arrested and charged with spreading propaganda, spying and insulting Iran’s supreme leader.
In 2010, she was imprisoned for conspiring to harm state security and spreading propaganda. Sotoudeh was released after half her 6-year term.
A judge said Sotoudeh had been sentenced to 5 years for assembling against national security and 2 years for insulting Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Her husband, Reza Khandan, took to Facebook and wrote his wife was sentenced to 33 years in prison and 148 lashes. Sotoudeh had also been found guilty in absentia of espionage charges, sentencing her to 5 years.
“Five years of prison for the first case, and 33 years with 148 lashes for the second,” Khandan wrote on Facebook.
“But only the longest sentence will be served, which is encouraging corruption and debauchery,” he added.
Iran, often accused of abuse of human rights, said it had let the UN Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights Kate Gilmore pay a visit. It seemed to be the first in many years by UN human rights investigators who have been denied access by the government.
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