Abdolfattah Soltani, Lawyer and Human Rights Activist, Released on 'Conditional' Basis

Abdolfattah Soltani, a lawyer and human rights activist, was conditionally released from Evin Prison on Wednesday, November 21. Maedeh Soltani, Abdolfattah Soltani's daughter, told Radio Farda that her father was released conditionally after serving more than half of his sentence. Less than a month ago, the news agency ISNA and Emadeddin Baghi, a human rights activist, reported on the possibility of Soltani's conditional release. Abdolfattah Soltani was one of the defense lawyers in the serial killings case and represented many journalists, students, and political and security defendants, having been summoned and imprisoned multiple times before 2011. In 2005, he was elected to the board of the Iranian Bar Association, but his qualification was rejected by the supervisory board of the judicial disciplinary court. After the 2009 elections, Soltani was imprisoned again on charges of 'questioning the election' and was released after two months on a 100 million tomans bail. In September 2011, this lawyer was arrested again on charges of 'propaganda against the regime,' 'forming the Human Rights Defenders Center,' 'conspiracy against the regime,' and 'acquiring property through illegal means.' The first court sentenced him to 18 years in prison, exile to Borazjan, and a 20-year ban from practicing law. The appeals court reduced this sentence to 13 years, and 10 years of prison time was enforced. Abdolfattah Soltani was also arrested in 2005 and spent 219 days in solitary confinement in Ward 209 of Evin Prison. In this case, he was sentenced to five years in prison and five years of social service prohibition for 'espionage' through disclosing information about his clients who were accused of espionage, but the appeals court acquitted him of these charges.