Nargess Mohammadi, the deputy chief of Iran’s Human Rights Centre who has been sentenced to 11 years in prison, says even a 100-year sentence would not force her to recant her beliefs.
In an interview with Deutsche Welle, Mohammadi said: “When I an sentenced to 11 years for the charge of struggling for peace and human rights, even 100 years in prison will not dissuade me from doing my duty for society, humanity and freedom of thought and speech.”
She added: “We have faith in our goal, which is the realization of all human rights in Iran, and we will continue to promote this aim through peaceful means and not through security activities.”
In a statement to the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, Mohammadi criticized sentencing authorities for equating her human rights activities with sedition.
Mohammadi was arrested in May of 2010 for her membership in the Human Rights Defenders Centre. She was released on bail and then arrested again a few days later, and then was finally released in July 2010 for medical reasons.
Meanwhile, the husband of Nasrin Sotoudeh, the jailed lawyer who is also a member of the Human Rights Defenders Centre, has been summoned by the Iranian judiciary.
Reza Khandan reports that he has not been issued an official summons but was merely pressed by his guarantor to report to court.
Last December, Khandan filed a letter of complaint regarding the mistreatment of his wife in prison, after which he was held for 24 hours for “publishing falsehoods.” He was released by a guarantor.
Sotoudeh and Khandan have two children, aged 11 and three, who are now in the sole care of their father and would be left without a guardian if he too is imprisoned.
