By Ahmad Rafat.....

Escalation of Pressure on Families: Jailed Human Rights Lawyer, Nasrin Sotoudeh’s Daughter Arrested and later released on bail

Iran Human Rights (IHR); August 17, 2020: Nasrin Sotoudeh’s daughter, Mehraveh Khandan was detained for hours by security forces today. Prominent Iranian human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh has been on hunger strike in protest to the treatment of political prisoners since August 11.

IHR strongly condemns the authorities’ escalation of pressure on Nasrin Sotoudeh and other human rights defenders by harassing their families. IHR Director, Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam said: “The harassment is aimed at silencing Nasrin Sotoudeh, who is defending basic human rights with her hunger strike. The international community must prevent further harassment of human rights defenders by standing with Nasrin Sotoudeh.”

According to IHR, today at noon, security forces arrested Mehraveh at her parents’ house and transferred her to the Evin Security Court without any explanation. At age 12, Mehraveh who is now 20, was banned from leaving the country due to her mother’s human rights activism. She has now been released on bail, after spending a few hours in detention.

Her arrest comes six days after her mother, Nasrin went on hunger strike by issuing a statement demanding the release of political prisoners on August 11.

Another group of political prisoners concurrently announced the start of their hunger strike in protest to the pressure on political prisoners.

Nasrin Sotoudeh, is a lawyer and human rights activist who has represented many human rights activists, women's rights activists, victims of child abuse and juvenile defenders on death row. She was previously jailed from August 2010 to September 2013 for her professional and human rights activities.

She was arrested again on 13 June 2018 and sentenced to five years in prison in absentia on the charge of "concealing a spy." In a separate case of seven different charges, she was sentenced to 148 lashes and 33 years in prison by Branch 28 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court presided over by Judge Moghiseh. One of the charges against her was “membership in an illegal group”, referring to Legam, the step by step campaign to abolish the death penalty. Given the high number of charges against her, it is unclear how much of the sentence she will have to serve.