Prominent Iranian Human Rights Lawyer Ordered Back to Prison

Iranian lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh (pictured 2013) was jailed in 2018 after defending a woman arrested for protesting against the requirement for Iranian women to wear the hijab Behrouz MEHRI AFP/File
Iranian lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh (pictured 2013) was jailed in 2018 after defending a woman arrested for protesting against the requirement for Iranian women to wear the hijab Behrouz MEHRI AFP/File
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Prominent Iranian Human Rights Lawyer Ordered Back to Prison

Iranian lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh (pictured 2013) was jailed in 2018 after defending a woman arrested for protesting against the requirement for Iranian women to wear the hijab Behrouz MEHRI AFP/File
Iranian lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh (pictured 2013) was jailed in 2018 after defending a woman arrested for protesting against the requirement for Iranian women to wear the hijab Behrouz MEHRI AFP/File

Iranian human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh is back in prison less than a month following her temporary release as her health deteriorated, her husband said Wednesday.

“Today we were told that Nasreen should return to Qarshak Women's Prison,” Reza Khandan wrote on his Twitter page, adding that the judiciary ignored instructions from doctors to extend her release for another week.

The judiciary did not comment on Khandan’s tweet.

Sotoudeh was released from prison last month for the first time in more than two years.

Khandan had said that his wife's condition is extremely worrying after she went on a hunger strike for almost 50 days to seek the release of prisoners during the novel coronavirus pandemic.

Sotoudeh, 57, was due to undergo another round of scans and tests to monitor her heart on Sunday, Khandan said, stressing that she was hospitalized for five days in a Tehran hospital last September.

Also, she tested positive for Covid-19 a few days after her temporary release.

Her husband said she contracted the virus during her final days in the Qarchak women’s prison just before coming out on furlough.

The UN had called on Iran to free Sotoudeh, a winner of the European Parliament's Sakharov prize, as well as other political prisoners excluded from a push to empty jails amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Last August, the lawyer announced she was going on hunger strike to demand the release of political prisoners and focus attention on their plight due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

But health issues prompted her to stop the hunger strike more than 45 days after she started it.

Sotoudeh was sentenced in 2019 to serve 12 years in jail for defending women arrested for protesting compulsory headscarf laws in Iran.



Israel's Netanyahu Heads to Hungary, Defying ICC Arrest Warrant

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends a joint press conference with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio at the Prime Minister's office in Jerusalem, February 16, 2025. Ohad Zwigenberg/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends a joint press conference with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio at the Prime Minister's office in Jerusalem, February 16, 2025. Ohad Zwigenberg/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo
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Israel's Netanyahu Heads to Hungary, Defying ICC Arrest Warrant

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends a joint press conference with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio at the Prime Minister's office in Jerusalem, February 16, 2025. Ohad Zwigenberg/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends a joint press conference with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio at the Prime Minister's office in Jerusalem, February 16, 2025. Ohad Zwigenberg/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu begins a four-day visit to Hungary on Thursday, defying an International Criminal Court arrest warrant over allegations of war crimes in Gaza as Israel has expanded its military operation in the enclave.

As a founding member of the ICC, Hungary is theoretically obliged to arrest and hand over anyone subject to a warrant from the court but Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban made clear when he issued the invitation that Hungary would not respect the ruling.

Netanyahu is due to meet Orban ahead of a press conference at around 1000 GMT.

In Budapest, workers were constructing a stage in the Buda Castle on Wednesday, where Orban was scheduled to welcome Netanyahu in a ceremony with military honors on Thursday morning and security forces could be seen near the central Budapest hotel where Netanyahu will be staying, The AP news reported.

The visit will be only the second he has made abroad since the International Criminal Court issued warrants to arrest both him and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant last November, but details of his program have been limited apart from a planned visit to a Holocaust memorial.

He visited Washington in February to meet close ally US President Donald Trump. Neither Israel nor the United States are members of the ICC, with Washington arguing the ICC could be used for politically motivated prosecutions.

Orban invited Netanyahu to visit a day after the ICC issued its arrest warrant over allegations of war crimes in Gaza, where Israel launched an offensive following a devastating attack by thousands of Hamas fighters on the October 7 attack.

Since then, the Israeli campaign has killed more than 50,000 Palestinians and devastated the Gaza Strip, triggering protests worldwide and prompting South Africa to launch separate legal action in the International Court of Justice, a different body to the ICC, accusing Israel of genocide.