Nasrin Sotoudeh

On 1 April 2026, Iranian Intelligence Ministry agents arrested Nasrin Sotoudeh at her home. Amnesty International states that she was then subjected to enforced disappearance for approximately six weeks. According to Front Line Defenders and her own account, she was beaten, had her hands and feet tied, was forced to wear the hijab and had adhesive tape placed over her mouth. She was released on bail on 13 May while facing a new charge of "propaganda against the state" linked to her political statements and work supporting political prisoners.

Sotoudeh's husband, Reza Khandan, himself an activist against compulsory hijab and the death penalty, was arrested in 2018 and sentenced in 2019 to six years' imprisonment, a sentence subsequently reduced. He was arrested again on 13 December 2024 to begin serving a sentence of three years and six months. In January 2025, their teenage son Nima was beaten and briefly detained by guards while visiting his father at Evin, according to Sotoudeh and human rights organisations.

State of the evidence

Established by a court

Role of the person profiled

Protagonist not prosecuted

Sotoudeh was arrested on 29 October 2023 at the funeral of Armita Geravand, a teenager whose death had renewed controversy over compulsory veiling. Witness accounts alleged violence during her arrest; she was released on bail in November. A communication from UN Special Procedures indicates that in July 2024 she was sentenced to eight years' imprisonment for "assembly and collusion against national security" and failure to comply with compulsory veiling rules.

State of the evidence

Established by a court

In October 2014, the Tehran Bar Association's disciplinary tribunal suspended Sotoudeh's professional licence for three years following a complaint by the Revolutionary Prosecutor's Office. She began an almost daily sit-in outside the Bar Association to denounce the measure and defend the profession's independence. In June 2015, the suspension was reduced from three years to nine months, a period already elapsed.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Directly implicated

On 25 October 2014, while participating in a mobilisation linked to acid attacks against women in Isfahan and criticism of the authorities' response, Nasrin Sotoudeh was arrested with other demonstrators. She was held for approximately seven hours at an Intelligence Ministry facility and stated that agents had threatened to charge her with "moharebeh" [war against God], an offence potentially punishable by death.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Directly implicated

Arrested in September 2010, Sotoudeh was sentenced in January 2011 to eleven years' imprisonment and twenty-year bans on practising law and leaving the country on national security and propaganda charges linked to her defence work. On appeal, the sentence was reduced to six years and the bans to ten years. She was released in September 2013 after approximately three years in detention.

Attribution

Protagonist is the victim

During her imprisonment, authorities imposed travel bans on her husband and young daughter, amid restrictions on family visits. Sotoudeh began a 49-day hunger strike in October 2012; she ended it after the ban affecting her daughter was lifted.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Protagonist is the victim