Daughter: Iran Dissident Gets 18 Years In Prison

Published March 4, 2012 3:36PM (EST)

BERLIN (AP) — The daughter of an Iranian human rights lawyer says her father has been sentenced to 18 years in prison by a Tehran revolutionary court.

Maede Soltani, who lives in Germany, told The Associated Press her father Abdolfattah Soltani was also banned from exercising his profession for 20 years.

She says her father's lawyer was informed of the sentence Sunday, but her family does not know when the court made its ruling.

The 58-year-old Soltani co-founded a human rights group with Iranian Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi and was arrested last year and has since been held in Tehran's notorious Evin prison.

Soltani says her father was charged with co-founding the Center for Human Rights Defenders, spreading anti-government propaganda and endangering national security.


By Salon Staff

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