Iranian authorities have increased their crackdown against human rights defenders
Published by Ali on September 6, 2018
According to Human Rights Watch: “Since 31 August, 2018, Iranian authorities have arrested four more human rights defenders, as well as Reza Khandan, husband of the prominent imprisoned human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh, all in Tehran. The authorities should immediately release these human rights defenders, who appear to have been arrested solely for peaceful dissent.” https://www.hrw.org/news/2018/09/05/iran-intensified-crackdown-rights-defenders
The report continues: “On 31August, Mohammad Najafi, a human rights lawyer, posted on his Facebook page that the authorities had arrested two other human rights lawyers, Farokh Forouzan and Payam Derafshan, who had attended a gathering at the house of an imprisoned lawyer, Arash Keykhosrqavi.
Derafshan represents Sotoudeh, whom authorities have detained since June. In the first days of September, authorities also arrested Hoda Amid and Najmeh Vahedi, two women’s rights defenders who are instructors for a workshop on equal rights in marriage, at their homes in Tehran. On the morning of 4 September, the authorities arrested Khandan after he refused to appear for an interrogation.
