Iran has faced international condemnation after one of the country’s most prominent human rights lawyers, detained for eight months, said she had been sentenced to a total of 38 years in prison and 148 lashes, according to her husband.
Security agents arrested the lawyer, Nasrin Sotoudeh, at her home in June last year.
The government offered no explanation, but at the time Ms. Sotoudeh was defending women who had been arrested after removing their hijabs, or head scarves, in public protests.
She received the European Union’s most prestigious human rights award, the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, in 2012, while serving a previous prison sentence.
Ms. Sotoudeh, held at Evin Prison in Tehran, told her husband about the latest sentencing during a brief telephone conversation, the Center for Human Rights in Iran, a monitoring group, said in a statement on Monday.
She received the European Union’s most prestigious human rights award, the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, in 2012, while serving a previous prison sentence.
Ms. Sotoudeh, held at Evin Prison in Tehran, told her husband about the latest sentencing during a brief telephone conversation, the Center for Human Rights in Iran, a monitoring group, said in a statement on Monday.
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Antonio Tajani, the president of the European Parliament, called the sentence “utterly outrageous” on Tuesday, and said on Twitter that the European Parliament stood with Ms. Sotoudeh.
Jeremy Hunt, Britain’s foreign secretary, also condemned the decision on Twitter.
“Shocked to hear reports that dedicated Iranian women’s rights campaigner and human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh has been sentenced to years in prison and 148 lashes,” he wrote.
“Human rights should be defended, not prosecuted,” he added.
Ms. Sotoudeh was not the only member of her family to be sentenced to prison this year.
Mr. Khandan, her husband, was sentenced to six years in January for illicitly posting updates about his wife’s case on Facebook[.]
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