Brussels, 16/09/2011 (Agence Europe) - In a press release issued on Thursday 15 September, Catherine Ashton, the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs condemns the arrest in Iran of lawyer and human rights activist Abdolfattah Soltani. He defended human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh, who is now serving an 11-year prison sentence. EU concerns over Ms Sotoudeh's case “have not met with any convincing response” when raised with the authorities, Ashton says. The arrest of Soltani, Ashton goes on to say, “illustrates the erosion of political and civil freedoms in Iran and is indicative of the increasingly difficult conditions for human rights activists in Iran”.
While welcoming the release of 1,200 prisoners, including Dr. Arash Alaei, an AIDS doctor imprisoned since 2008, Ashton states that “many are still detained on grounds which appear, above all, political”.
She calls on Iran to release human rights activists “immediately” and to allow them to exercise their rights freely. The ongoing persecution of human rights lawyers and activists in Iran is “in breach of the international obligations that Iran has itself signed up to”, she notes. (CG/transl.rt)