Iran daily labels arrested human rights lawyer “nuclear spy”

Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Aug. 01 – The jailed human rights lawyer Abdolfattah Soltani is being charged with giving away Iran’s nuclear secrets, a government-owned daily wrote on Monday.
Soltani, who was nabbed by plainclothes policemen on Saturday, is the lawyer for the family of slain Iranian-Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi, who was murdered in Evin Prison in July 2003. Iran Focus

Tehran, Iran, Aug. 01 – The jailed human rights lawyer Abdolfattah Soltani is being charged with giving away Iran’s nuclear secrets, a government-owned daily wrote on Monday.

Soltani, who was nabbed by plainclothes policemen on Saturday, is the lawyer for the family of slain Iranian-Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi, who was murdered in Evin Prison in July 2003.

“Abdolfattah Soltani’s most serious charge is that he was a nuclear spy”, the influential daily Kayhan wrote in a front page article on Monday.

Kayhan said that Soltani had used his position as a lawyer to obtain information from clients who were being tried on cases related to national security. He would then hand over the information to “hostile opposition groups to expose such highly secret information”, Kayhan, which has close ties to the country’s security and intelligence services, wrote.

“Soltani has committed treason”, the article added.

Kayhan wrote that Soltani and fellow lawyer Shirin Ebadi “were arrested a few days ago with a master key as they tried to burgle they way into Milad Hospital where Akbar Ganji is being held”.

Shirin Ebadi, winner of the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize, and Soltani were representing Kazemi’s relatives. They have both also been representing jailed journalist Akbar Ganji who is currently on day 52 of a hunger strike in protest to his detention.