Nasrin Sotoudeh, the Iranian human rights lawyer whose licence to practice law was recently suspended by the Lawyer's Disciplinary Tribunal, has begun a sit-in in frontof the Lawyer's Supervisory Board.
On Saturday October 18, the Lawyer's Disciplinary Tribunal suspended Sotoudeh's licence for three years and reports indicate that the supervisory body was under pressure from the Prosecutor's office to do so.
Sotoudeh issued a statement saying that the decision to suspend her licence was taken under pressure from the Prosecutor's Office and the Ministry of Intelligence and, therefore, she is protesting it.
She adds that starting October 21, she will sit in protest in front of the Lawyer's Supervisory Board's offices, offering this rationale: "For years the Iranian government has deprived dissenters of the right to life, education and work. I protest against this deprivation."
She goes on to decry what she referred to as the legal community's loss of independence due to various forms of pressure from the government.
