Iranian Human Rights Lawyer Sotoudeh Sentenced to 38 Years in Prison, Says Family

Tehran [Iran], March 13 (ANI): Iranian human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh has been sentenced to serve 38 years in prison and 148 lashes, according to her family.Sotoudeh was convicted of "gathering and colluding to commit crimes against national security" and for "insulting the Supreme Leader," according to IRNA.She is renowned for representing human rights defenders, dissidents and women who protested against the compulsory wearing of a headscarf in the country.Sotoudeh's husband, Reza Khandan, wrote in a Facebook post that she has been sentenced to 33 years and 148 lashes. Stating that she was awarded five years in prison in absentia, her punishment now amounts to a total of 38 years in prison.Contradicting Khandan, the state media, citing the judge in the case, Mohammad Moghiseh, stated that Sotoudeh has been sentenced to seven years in prison. However, the reason for the discrepancy in the reports was not immediately clear.Meanwhile, Amnesty International condemned the decision of incarceration of the Iranian Human Rights lawyer."Nasrin Sotoudeh has dedicated her life to defending women's rights and speaking out against the death penalty -- it is utterly outrageous that Iran's authorities are punishing her for her human rights work," said Philip Luther, Amnesty International's Middle East and North Africa research and advocacy director, in a statement on Monday.Last June, Sotoudeh was arrested in Tehran and taken to Evin prison.A winner of the European Parliament's Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, Sotoudeh, is serving a jail sentence for a second time.According to CNN, in 2010, she was sentenced to 11 years in prison on charges relating to her work. She was defending detained Iranian demonstrators during the 2009 Green Movement, a protest movement sparked by widespread accusations of electoral fraud. She was, however, granted an early release in 2013. (ANI)

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