Freedom for Iranian lawyer Javid Houtan Kian

Javid Houtan Kian is the lawyer who defended Sakineh Ashtiani as she fought to avoid a stoning execution under the barbaric shari’a laws of the Islamic Republic regime in Iran.

Houtan Kian supported Sakineh’s son Sajjad Ghaderzadeh in his efforts to raise international awareness about his mother’s case. The campaign, implemented jointly by the International Committees against Stoning and Execution and Mission Free Iran, and with the support of millions of people worldwide, succeeded in stopping the killing of Ms. Ashtiani, who was to have been executed by stoning in early July 2010 (sadly, due to the excruciating nature of her circumstances, Ms. Ashtiani has recently attempted suicide). The campaign to stop stoning in Iran and free Sakineh Ashtiani raised global awareness of the crimes of stoning and execution in Iran, and created a crisis of legitimacy in the international arena for the Islamic Republic regime.

On October 10, 2010, Houtan Kian, Sajjad Ghaderzadeh, and two German journalists were arrested by agents of the Islamic Republic’s Ministry of Intelligence in Mr. Kian’s law offices in Tabriz, West Azerbaijan, Iran. Sajjad Ghaderzadeh, who was reported to have been brutally tortured throughout his detention, was eventually released on January 1st, 2011. The two German journalists were released to the German Foreign Ministry in apparently good health on February 20, 2011. But Houtan Kian remains in prison, having been under unspeakable torture for the duration of his detention. The International Committees against Stoning and Execution recently announced that Mr. Kian’s execution is imminent.