Judiciary attorney Abdulfatah Soltani has staged a hunger strike since March 21 to protest unjust and discriminatory measures in prison, and pressures imposed by the Intelligence Ministry.
The recipient of the Nuremberg International Human Rights Award, Soltani has been imprisoned for seven years after shedding light on the injustice imposed on his clients. He was sentenced to 18 years behind bars and 20 years deprivation of attorney on the charge of “propaganda against the system”. The prison verdict was later reduced to 10 years.
Based on Article 134, if a defendant is faced with more than one charges, the charge with the highest penalty will be taken into account; this means that Mr. Soltani has served more than two third of his sentence and technically he can be granted conditional release.
However, Abdolfatah Soltani’s relatives claim that his retrial and conditional release are somehow rejected. A few days ago, Soltani’s two lawyers informed him that their request for a retrial and/or conditional release was dismissed.