Iran's Human Rights Activists Being Arrested, Nobel Prize Winner Tells NPR

[WillyT]

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Security officials posing as clients entered the Tehran offices of one of Iran's leading human rights lawyers today and arrested him, Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi just told NPR's Davar Iran Ardalan.

That lawyer, Abdolfattah Soltani, spoke with Davar just yesterday -- telling her that the Iranian government should recount all the votes in last Friday's disputed presidential election, in which President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was declared the winner by a 2-1 margin.

"Once they were inside they immediately confiscated his computer and other documents and they arrested Mr. Soltani," Ebadi said in today's interview. "As far as we know, they did not have an arrest warrant."

Ebadi, now in Switzerland, said her aides in Tehran tell her other human rights activists have been rounded up as well. (Update at 3:30 p.m. ET: She said others who have been arrested include Abdolreza Tajik, a journalist and member of Ebadi's Human Rights Defenders Center; Saeed Hajjarian, a prominent reformer; and Mohammad Ali Abtahi, another leading reformer.)

Also during the interview, Ebadi appealed to her fellow Iranians to remain calm and not give authorities any excuse to use violence against them.

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Link (with audio): http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2009/06/ebadi.html