Symbolic Naming of a Nuremberg Urban Park After Abdolfattah Soltani

On the sixth anniversary of the arrest and imprisonment of Abdolfattah Soltani, an Iranian lawyer and human rights advocate, a park in southern Nuremberg, Germany, was symbolically named Park Soltani on Sunday afternoon, September 10. At this gathering, speakers referred to Mr. Soltani's illness resulting from six years in Evin prison and discussed the situation of prisoners who have gone on hunger strike in Rajai Shahr prison in Karaj. Abdolfattah Soltani, a lawyer and member of the Human Rights Defenders Center, has been imprisoned in Evin since September 2011. He was sentenced to 13 years in prison and a two-year ban from practicing law on charges of propaganda against the regime and forming and managing a group aimed at disrupting national security. If Article 134 of the Islamic Penal Code is applied to Mr. Soltani, his sentence will be reduced to 10 years, meaning he has served more than half of his sentence so far. During this time, he has had the least amount of leave, having only succeeded in obtaining permission from judicial authorities for leave three times, one of which was when his mother passed away. His first leave was granted in January 2016 after serving four years and four months, and he recently had a few days of leave in July of this year. Listen to Shahram Mirian's report, a colleague of Radio Farda in Germany, about the gathering in Nuremberg and the naming of a park after Mr. Soltani.