As Iran's anti-government protests continue, lawyers who have pledged to provide legal aid to protesters have come under increasing pressure from the country's judiciary and security forces. Since the beginning of nationwide protests in Iran in September, activists say at least 16 human rights lawyers have been arrested across the country, including four recently in the country's East Azerbaijan province.
Local sources say dozens of Azerbaijani-Turkish lawyers are coming under increasing government pressure for criticizing the crackdown on demonstrations and providing legal aid to those arrested during anti-government demonstrations. The East Azerbaijan provincial bar association is allegedly also under scrutiny.
A source living inside Iran who is familiar with the lawyers' cases told VOA that in recent days, four attorneys working in Tabriz, the largest Azerbaijani Turkish population center in northwestern Iran, were sentenced to prison and banned from leaving the country. The source, who declined to speak on the record about the prosecutions for fear of government retaliation, also said the government opened disciplinary files for more than 50 active attorney members of the bar.
East Azerbaijan's bar association got involved early in the protests over the death of Mahsa Amini, 22, in Iran's morality police custody. Just a few weeks after nationwide protests erupted, the bar association formed a "Defense Committee" to provide legal aid to those arrested in connection with the protests.
The move was announced in mid-October by Sina Yousefi, an Azerbaijani Turk attorney and the vice chairman of the Human Rights Commission of the bar association. In a social media post, he claimed more than 1,700 people had been arrested in connection with the protests that took place in the city of Tabriz.
Three days later, Iranian security forces arrested Yousefi and then detained three other local lawyers in Tabriz. The lawyers were released on bail after two to six weeks in custody.
Those arrested in the recent anti-government demonstrations in Iran are mostly facing charges such as "spreading propaganda against the Islamic Republic," "forming group to disturb national security," and "disturbing public opinion."
After his release, Ghasem Bodi said on his Twitter account that he was sentenced to five months in prison, as well as a fine, a ban on leaving the country, and an additional three months and one day in prison for criticizing the crackdown and defending the rights of detainees.
The local source familiar with the cases said two other lawyers detained in Tabriz, Yousefi and Amir Mehdipour, were sentenced to six months in prison, a two-year ban on leaving the country, and the confiscation of their electronic devices. The lawyers were charged with "spreading propaganda against the Islamic Republic," the source added. The fourth arrested lawyer, Negin Kayani, reportedly has not yet been charged.
Lawyers face legal peril
The increasing pressure on lawyers who are willing to defend people facing protest-related charges in Iranian courts can mean detainees do not have a lawyer of their choice or they have no attorney at all.
In recent years, Mohammad Reza Faqihi and Sina Yousefi, as well as a few other Azerbaijani Turk attorneys, have defended several Turkish-language rights activists facing similar charges of spreading propaganda or "disturbing public opinion" by Iran's revolutionary courts.
The Turks are Iran's largest linguistic minority, residing primarily in Iranian Azerbaijan, which is bordered by the nations of Azerbaijan and Turkey.
The government of Iran has never published official statistics on the population of the country's ethnic and linguistic groups. During his official visit to Turkey in January 2011, however, then-Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi stated that 40% of Iranians speak Turkish.
Most Azerbaijani Turks are Shia Muslims, which is the official state religion of Iran, but they have long been barred from education in their native tongue.
