Abdolfattah Soltani
Abdolfattah Soltani (Persian عبدالفتاح سلطانی; born November 2, 1953) is an Iranian lawyer and member of Tehran's Center for Human Rights Defenders, which he founded in 2002 together with the Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi. He is the recipient of the Nuremberg International Human Rights Award 2009.
Life
Abdolfattah Soltani represented in the course of his work as a lawyer in Iran several times of political prisoners and their families, including among others the journalist Akbar Ganji, the parents of the murdered in custody Canadian journalist Zahra Kazemi, the Iranian - and one of the few lawyers who Bahai.
In 2005, Soltani spent 219 days in prison, 43 of them in solitary confinement. The Center for Advocates of Human Rights, an international non-governmental organization, has repeatedly protested unsuccessfully against the detention Soltanis. In 2006, he was sentenced to five years in prison, four years in prison for " disclosure of confidential documents " and a year because of " propaganda against the system". On 28 May 2007, he was acquitted of all against him since his arrest in July 2005 charges brought. Since then, it has prevented him to travel outside Iran.
On 16 June 2009 Soltani after the Iranian presidential elections in 2009 and the subsequent protests in his office without cause and without a warrant was arrested again. The whereabouts of Soltani was held by the Iranian authorities initially secret; Soltani was denied any contact with the outside world. Meanwhile he spent in Tehran's Evin prison and is being held there in solitary confinement. The arrests are interpreted as a sign of massive oppression of political opposition in Iran, as member Soltani applies as an advocate for human rights.
On behalf of the City of Nuremberg and the jury of the International Human Rights Award protested in June 2009, including the mayor of Nuremberg Ulrich Maly also against the arrest and demanded Soltanis citing ratified by Iran International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the immediate release.
27 August 2009 Soltani was finally released on bail. As a deposit, the family had deposited the title deed of Soltanis Attorney 's office.
The Iranian government refused Soltani October 2, 2009 at the airport in Tehran to leave Iran for the official award ceremony of the International Human Rights Award. 4 October 2009 Soltani, the International Human Rights Award was awarded in 2009 during a ceremony at the Opera House Nuremberg in absentia. Representing his wife took Masoumeh Dehghan accepted the award. 2012 Masoumeh Dehghan this was sentenced by a court in Iran to one year jail sentence and a five-year travel ban, as they had received the prize instead of her husband.
Condemnation
Shortly after the Iranian parliamentary elections in 2012 Soltani was sentenced to 18 years imprisonment and banned from working for 20 years. He was convicted of " unlawful acceptance of a price ", " propaganda against the regime ", " Assembly and darkening system with hostile intent " and the " establishment of the Centre for the Protection of Human Rights".
In an appeal hearing in June 2012, the sentence was reduced to 13 years. An offer that the punishment further reduce when he openly distanced himself from Ebadi, he had knocked out according to his daughter.