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IDHAE INFORMATION
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Abdolfattah Soltani has been acquitted on appeal of espionage-related charges after spending seven months in jail.
An IDHAE Portrait
of Abdolfattah Soltani Abdolfattah Soltani, lawyer at the Bar of Tehran, is a well-known
Iranian human rights lawyer. He the lawyer for the family of
slain Iranian-Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi,
who was murdered in Evin Prison in July 2003. Shirin Ebadi, winner of the 2003
Nobel Peace Prize, and Soltani were representing
the family of Zahra Kazemi, ,
an Iranian-Canadian photographer who died in July 2003 from torture and
ill-treatment during her detention in Iranian custody. They have both also
been representing jailed journalist Akbar Ganji who
is currently on day 52 of a hunger strike in protest to his detention. On July 27, 2005, Mr. Saïd Mortazavi, Tehran
Prosecutor, requested the Revolution’s Court of Tehran to issue a warrant for
the arrest of Mr. Soltani along with a search
warrant for his home. As he was absent, the warrants were delivered to his
wife and his house was searched. All his documents, files, video-tapes,
books, pictures etc. were seized and transferred to the Revolutionary Public
Prosecutor’s Office. He was arrested on July 30, 2005
while he was taking part in a sit-in at the Bar of Tehran in order to protest
against his warrant of arrest, which Mr. Soltani
considered as “illegal with respect to the Iranian Penal Code”, as well as
against the search and seizure of his personal and professional belongings on
order of Mr. Saïd Mortazavi. Abdolfattah Soltani
has been accused of “espionage”, without any other precisions. On July 31,
2005, a spokesman for the Ministry of Justice announced that Abdolfattah Soltani had been arrested
for having illegally divulged information from one of his clients who was
charged with revealing Iran’s nuclear secrets. Morehower,
the arrest of Mr. Soltani is thought to be linked
with his declaration issued on July 25, 2005, during a hearing in the Court
of Appeal of Tehran about the case of Ms. Kazemi.
Mr. Soltani, lawyer of Ms. Zahra Kazamis family, questioned the independence and fairness
of the trial, pointing out that the main officials allegedly involved in the
case had not been indicted by the court, including Tehran Prosecutor. Abdolfattah Soltani
was held in solitary confinement until 15 September 2005, when he was moved
into a cell with another prisoner. He was detained at the prison of Evin, in Tehran. His wife and mother were permitted to
meet him for the first time only 10 days before this, on 5 September 2005,
and then only in the presence of a prison guard. He looked physically
weakened, and said that he had not been informed about the authorities'
intentions in his case. His wife and mother have been permitted visits since,
usually in the presence of prison guards but his children have not seen him
since his arrest. He is reportedly barred from making phone calls and reading
newspapers.
During his detention was elected
as a board member by the Bar Association of Tehran, but he received a letter
from the Judiciary rejecting his election as a board member, explaining that
as he was in prison during the election, his candidacy was not valid.
On July 16, 2006, he was informed that the
Revolutionary Court of Tehran had sentenced him to a five-year prison term
and to the loss of his civic rights, for failing to respect the
confidentiality of the preliminary inquiry into the case of Ms. Zahra Kazemi, an Iranian-Canadian photographer who died in 2003
from acts of torture and ill-treatments to which she was subjected during her
detention. Mr. Soltani had questioned the
independence and fairness of the trial, stressing that the main officials
allegedly involved in the case had not been prosecuted by the court,
including Mr. Saïd Mortazavi.
Mr. Soltani appealed against this judgment. On May
28th, the prominent Iranian
human rights lawyer said he has been acquitted on appeal of espionage-related charges.
He had spent seven
months in jail. Copyright IDHAE
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