Iranian human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh has been summoned to Iran's Ministry of Intelligence, her husband said on his Facebook page, a few days after a video was posted online in which the lawyer expressed her support for prisoners of conscience, as she calls them.
Reza Khandan, Sotoudeh's husband, said his wife ignored the summons she received by phone on Sunday because she considered it "illegal.".
Sotoudeh was released from prison in September, shortly before Iranian President Hassan Rouhani traveled to the United States to attend the UN General Assembly, in a move seen as ushering Iran into a new era following his election.
However, in March the UN announced that the Rouhani government had made small steps to improve human rights in the country. According to the organization's special envoy, about 900 political prisoners are still imprisoned in Iran.
In a Facebook post yesterday, Hadan said that the Intelligence Ministry had summoned Sotoudeh, but she considered the call "illegal" and ignored the summons, for which she did not provide a reason. The call came two days after a video was posted on YouTube showing Sotoudeh expressing support for reformist politicians Mehdi Karroubi and Mirhossein Mousavi, who have been under house arrest since 2011.
Addressing a group of people, Sotoudeh stated: "We seem free, but our hearts are always trapped between two groups: those who are imprisoned in their own homes, Mrs. Rahnavard (Mousavi's wife), Mr. Mousavi and Mr. Karoubi, who are prisoners of conscience, and the prisoners of conscience who are in prisons in other Iranian cities.".
Mousavi and Karoubi were candidates in the 2009 presidential election, which their supporters alleged was rigged. The re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sparked months of unrest among supporters of the two reformist politicians.
Mousavi and Karoubi have been under house arrest since 2011 when they called on supporters to demonstrate in solidarity with uprisings in the Arab world.
Source: newsit.gr
