Abdolfattah Soltani Temporarily Ends Hunger Strike

Abdolfattah Soltani announced that in response to a request from 3,600 lawyers and civil activists, he will temporarily halt his hunger strike until April 20, so that lawyers and members of parliament can pursue his 'rights' during this period. This human rights lawyer wrote in a letter on Tuesday, April 25, that he is 'temporarily stopping' his hunger strike in response to these requests, allowing lawyers, parliament members, heads of the Central Bar Association, the Iranian Bar Association, and other civil and political activists to pursue 'justice and the realization of rights' in a 'non-tensed atmosphere.' On Sunday, 3,600 lawyers and civil and political activists had requested in a letter to parliament representatives, judiciary officials, the head of the Central Bar Association, the head of the Iranian Bar Association, and other lawyers to use 'all available capacities' to 'remove obstacles' to Abdolfattah Soltani's freedom by the end of April. The authors of this letter also asked Mr. Soltani to 'suspend his hunger strike at least until the end of April.' Abdolfattah Soltani, a lawyer and human rights defender, has been on hunger strike since the first day of Farvardin (March 21) in protest against the interference of Ministry of Intelligence agents in the judicial matters of political prisoners. Shirin Ebadi, head of the Human Rights Defenders Center, previously stated that one of the interrogators from the Ministry of Intelligence, known as Mahmoudi, who had previously interrogated him, is the interrogator in the cases of Narges Mohammadi and Abdolfattah Soltani. Abdolfattah Soltani has been sentenced to 13 years in prison, which will be reduced to 10 years under Article 134 of the Islamic Penal Code. According to Article 134, if a person has committed multiple offenses, only the sentence with the highest punishment is considered. Additionally, if Mr. Soltani utilizes his right to parole, he should be released. However, the 'Kaleme' website published a letter from Abdolfattah Soltani's lawyers on March 20, stating that this lawyer has filed for retrial, but the Supreme Court has not even 'bothered to study the case or, furthermore, to request the case,' and has responded negatively to this request within just a few days. Meanwhile, in the letter from 3,600 civil and political activists, the 'silence on the request for the application of former Article 18 (despite all judicial preparations), rejection of the retrial, cancellation of the right to leave during Nowruz, and deprivation of the legal right to parole' are among the 'injustices' committed against this lawyer. In recent years, several human rights awards, including the annual award from the International Association of Lawyers and the Nuremberg Human Rights Award in Germany, have been awarded to Mr. Soltani. Several human rights organizations and Claudia Roth, Vice President of the German Parliament, have previously called for the release of this lawyer. Abdolfattah Soltani was also arrested in 2005 and spent 219 days in solitary confinement in Ward 209 of Evin Prison. In this case, the court sentenced him to five years in prison and five years of deprivation of social services for 'espionage' through the disclosure of information regarding his clients' cases, who were accused of espionage, but the appeals court acquitted Mr. Soltani of these charges.