Freedom for Abdolfattah Soltani

Abdolfattah Soltani is a prominent human rights lawyer and a founding member of the Centre of Human Rights Defenders (CHRD) in Tehran.

Mr Soltani has worked courageously and determinedly throughout his career to provide pro bono legal counsel to those in need.

In 2012 he has been conferred with the International Bar Association Human Rights Award for his outstanding contribution as a legal practitioner to human rights. Under the most difficult conditions he never stopped to reveal and accuse publicly the human rights violations of Iranian authorities.

As a result of his human rights defence work, Mr Soltani has endured persistent persecution from the Iranian government and has been imprisoned on several occasions. He spent many months in solitary confinement. Since 2007 he has been denied to leave the country and in 2009 he was denied to accept the Nuremberg Human Rights Award.

In September 2011 Mr Soltani has been arrested again for accepting "an illegal award and illegal honors". In March 2012 he was sentenced to 18 years in prison and a 20-year ban from practising law. This sentence was reduced to 13 years in prison. He should serve his sentence at Borazzjan prison, some 1200km from his family.

Currently he is still in Evin-Prison in Tehran, without appropriate medical care and without any legal assistance.

Abdolfattah Soltani suffers from digestive tract and intestinal disease, a condition compounded by stress resulting from prison conditions and a cardiac disorder that urgently needs medical care in a hospital. In the past he repeatedly has been denied hospital treatment although recommended emphatically by his doctors.