On the annual conference of the International Bar Association (IBA), the IBA Human Rights Award 2012 was awarded to Abdolfattah Soltani.
Soltani is the co-founder of the Defender of Human Rights Centre(DHRC) and acted on behalf of, among others, journalist Akbar Ganji (Ganji exposed the involvement of government officials in the murders of intellectuals and journalists, and was arrested on charges of endangering national security) and the family of the Iranian-Canadian photographer Zahra Kazemi, who was tortured and murdered in prison in 2003.
Soltani is currently serving a prison sentence of 13 years. He was convicted on charges of “propaganda against the system”, “participation in founding the Human Rights Defenders Centre”, “assembly and collusion against national security” as well as “earning illegitimate assets” through receiving the Nuremberg City’s Human Rights price in 2009.
The IBA award was awarded to Soltani for his outstanding contribution to the promotion, protection and advancement of human rights and the rule of law.
For more information about Abdolfattah Soltani, see his biography on our website.
