Human rights lawyer to serve 13-year sentence

Iranian human rights lawyer and activist Abdolfattah Soltani has been sentenced to 13 years in jail by a Tehran Revolutionary Court. Human Rights Activists News Agency reports that Soltani's 13 year sentence was confirmed at the branch 54 of the Revolutionary Court and will have to be served in exile.

Maede Soltani, who resides in Germany, told AP that the sentence was "politically motivated" and that her father was told that his sentence would be reduced "if he were to apologize and speak out against Ms. Ebadi [Iranian Nobel Peace laureate Shirin Ebadi] in an open letter or an interview." (...)