Iranian lawyer and 2012 Sakharov Prize co-winner Nasrin Sotoudeh was “Temporarily released with the approval of the prosecutor in charge of women’s prisons”, the official news agency of the Iranian judiciary said on Saturday (November 7th).
Sentenced in 2019 to twelve years in prison, the human rights activist defended a woman arrested for demonstrating against the obligation for Iranian women to wear the veil.
The United Nations (UN) notably called, last month, for the release of Mr.me Sotoudeh as well as that of other detainees considered as political prisoners and excluded from exceptional releases decided by the government due to the epidemic linked to the coronavirus.
Health degraded by 45 days of hunger strike
First imprisoned in Evin prison, north of Tehran, alongside French researcher Fariba Adelkhah, released in early October and under house arrest under the control of an electronic bracelet, the activist was transferred in October to Qarchak prison, thirty kilometers south of the capital.
His relatives had alerted, last month, to the health of the 57-year-old lawyer, who had deteriorated after forty-five days of hunger strike. She had been hospitalized urgently at the end of September. Mme Sotoudeh also wanted to obtain the release of political detainees during the epidemic.
Since March, more than 100,000 detainees have benefited from exit permits or reduced sentences, in order to limit the spread of Covid-19 in Iranian prisons.
