An appeals court inΒ IranΒ has reduced the prominentΒ human rightsΒ lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh‘s jail sentence.Β SotoudehΒ defended many of the human rights activists who were arrested after the presidential elections in June 2009. She also defended Shirin Ebadi, the human rights lawyer and Nobel laureate who co-founded theΒ Defenders for Human Rights Center. She also acted as lawyer of the Iranian-Dutch human rights activist Zahra Bahrami, who was executed in Iran on 29 January 2011.
Sotoudeh was originally sentenced to prison for 11 years in january 2011. Now in appeal, that sentence was reduced to 6 years. Also, she was banned from practising law and travelling abroad for a period of 20 years. She received the punishment for allegedly undermining national security, propaganda against the regime and for not wearing a hejab (Islamic dress or headscarf). This means that her sentence was higher than requested: her interrogators reportedly told Sotoudeh that they would not accept a lower sentence.
