Prominent Iranian lawyer and human rights activist Mohammad Ali Dadkhah has been arrested and sent to prison to serve a sentence he received more than a decade ago for allegedly attempting to overthrow the ruling Islamic system.
Lawyer Mustafa Nili wrote on Twitter on July 20 that Dadkhah had been transferred to the notorious Evin prison to serve the eight-year sentence he received in 2011. Dadkhah has been out on parole since 2013.
Nili quoted lawyer Iman Pirouzkhah as saying that Dadkhah was rearrested under “illegal pretexts.” He did not elaborate.
Dadkhah, who has defended a number of political prisoners in Iran, including a Christian pastor on death row for apostasy, is a founding member of the Defenders of Human Rights Center (DHRC) along with Nobel Peace Prize-winner Shirin Ebadi.
Since a disputed June 2009 presidential election, several co-founders and members of the DHRC have been imprisoned, including lawyer Abdolfattah Soltani and journalist Abdolreza Tajik.
Source » rferl