Abdolfattah Soltani's First Leave After 52 Months of Continuous Imprisonment

The Khabar Online website, close to Mir Hossein Mousavi, reported on Sunday, January 27, that Abdolfattah Soltani, a jailed lawyer who has been in Evin Prison since 2011, has been granted leave for the first time after 4 years and 4 months. In previous years, Mr. Soltani's family had repeatedly requested his leave, stating that judicial officials had opposed this request. For instance, Maedeh Soltani, Abdolfattah Soltani's daughter, stated in April that judicial officials claimed Mr. Soltani was 'not willing to repent,' which was the reason for denying his leave. This lawyer was sentenced in 2011 to 13 years of imprisonment and a 20-year ban from practicing law, which, according to his daughter, has been reduced to 10 years of imprisonment and a 2-year ban from practicing law due to the new Islamic Penal Code and the aggregation of crimes under Article 134. Meanwhile, Khabar Online announced that Mr. Soltani has served more than one-third of his prison sentence and should be released. This member of the Human Rights Defenders Association, led by Shirin Ebadi, had gone on a hunger strike in 2013 in protest against the conditions of sick prisoners and 'the authorities' negligence towards their dire situation.' Over the years, he has received several human rights awards, including the annual award from the International Association of Lawyers and the Nuremberg Human Rights Award in Germany. The Nuremberg Bar Association in Germany also supported him by preparing several thousand postcards and sending them to the Iranian embassy on his birthday this November. Several human rights organizations and Claudia Roth, Vice President of the German Parliament, have previously called for the release of this lawyer. Abdolfattah Soltani has a history of two other arrests. He was arrested 10 years ago in 2005 and spent 219 days in solitary confinement in Ward 209 of Evin Prison. In this case, he was sentenced to 5 years in prison and a 5-year ban from social services for 'espionage' by disclosing information about his clients' cases, who were accused of espionage, but the appeals court acquitted him of these charges. This lawyer was also arrested on June 16, 2009, just 4 days after the controversial presidential election, and was released two months later after posting a bail of 100 million tomans.