Nasrin Sotoudeh, a 64-year-old lawyer renowned for defending activists, opposition politicians, and women prosecuted for removing headscarves, was taken from her house in Tehran, according to her daughter Mehraveh Khandan. Sotoudeh's husband, Reza Khandan, is currently imprisoned in Tehran's Evin prison, and Mehraveh Khandan received messages from family in Iran through an intermediary confirming the arrest. Iranian authorities have intensified their crackdown on dissent and political activists, with multiple reports indicating hundreds of arrests since the war began on February 28, often for communicating with foreign media.
Authorities have also stepped up executions of detained protesters who were facing the death sentence, and rights groups have said the crackdown is meant to instill fear and deter new protests. Restrictions on communications and the internet imposed since January make contact with the outside world almost impossible, complicating efforts to monitor detainees. Days before her arrest, Sotoudeh gave an interview published on Monday to a Persian media outlet abroad.
She appeared extremely emaciated, pale, weak, and had difficulty moving. In fact, she was even accompanied to the waiting room by a nurse. We learned from Narges Mohammadi that she had a heart attack on March 24th, that she was found unconscious in her cell, and that it was actually her fellow inmates who took her to the infirmary.
Mehraveh Khandan expressed worry about her mother's safety due to possible US-Israeli attacks on detention facilities and because the regime became even more brutal after the war started. Meanwhile, Iran's imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi may have suffered a heart attack, according to her French lawyer Chirinne Ardakani. Mohammadi's legal team learned of her condition during a brief prison visit last week, and her health has been worsening.
Mohammadi, 53, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2023 while in prison, was arrested in December during a visit to Mashhad, and sentenced to seven more years in prison. There were airstrikes not too far from Zanjan Prison in northwestern Iran where she is held, according to her French lawyer. Key unknowns remain, including the exact charges or legal basis for Sotoudeh's detention, her current location or condition, and whether Mohammadi received medical treatment after her reported heart attack.
The specific targets or perpetrators of the airstrikes near Zanjan Prison and the total number of arrests made by Iranian authorities since the war began on February 28 have also not been confirmed.