Lawyers’ Rights Watch Canada (LRWC) welcomes news that human rights lawyer Mr. Amirsalar Davoudi was on 13 June 2021 granted pre-trial release from Rajaie Shahr prison in Alborz province, Iran, on bail of 20 billion IRR (approximately US $475,000). He has been released pending a retrial ordered by Iran’s Supreme Court. Mr. Davoudi is scheduled to be retried by Tehran’s Revolutionary Court starting 20 June 2021.
Amirsalar Davoudi is a human rights lawyer and a member of the Human Rights Commission of the Iranian Bar Association. Mr. Davoudi’s work includes representation of many detained human rights defenders and political prisoners. He was first arrested on 20 November 2018 by security agents in his law office. According to Front Line Defenders:
On 28 May 2019 he learned that Branch 15 of the Revolutionary Court in Tehran had sentenced him to a total of 30 years’ imprisonment and 111 lashes, on account of six charges including “insulting the Supreme Leader”,“spreading propaganda against the system” and “forming a group with the purpose of disrupting national security” in relation to his human rights work. The charges were in connection to media interviews he had given and posts he had uploaded to his Telegram channel. According to Art. 134 of the Islamic Penal Code, Amirsalar Davoudi would have served the most severe single sentence, which in his case was 15 years for “forming a group with the purpose of disrupting national security”.
In March 2021, the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute (the IBAHRI), the International Commission of Jurists (the ICJ), Lawyers for Lawyers, Lawyers’ Rights Watch Canada, and The Law Society made a joint oral statement to the UN Human Rights Council seeking his immediate and unconditional release. The Statement also sought the release of human rights lawyer Ms. Nasrin Sotoudeh and other lawyers who remain in prison after being convicted in unfair trials.
In December 2020, LRWC joined Lawyers for Lawyers and the Law Society of England and Wales in a joint letter raising concern about the continued detention and precarious health situation of Mr. Davoudie and Ms. Nasrin Sotoudeh and seeking their immediate and unconditional release and an end to all forms of harassment against them, including judicial harassment.The letter also requested that the Islamic Republic of Iran ensure that members of the legal profession can carry out their professional functions without harassment and improper interference.
LRWC continues to monitor the situation of Mr. Davoodi and Ms. Sotoudeh along with the situation of all human rights lawyers and defenders in Iran.
