A blind disability rights lawyer from Iran’s Kurdistan Province has been unlawfully detained by state security forces, according to a US-based human rights group. 

Nasser Saragaran, 36, a university lecturer and advocate for the rights of people with disabilities, was detained without the presentation of a warrant at his family home in Saqqez on 11 October, the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) has stated. He was transferred to a detention centre in the provincial capital, Sanandaj. 

According to the statement, Saragaran, an ethnic Kurd, is widely recognised in Saqqez as a lawyer who has represented detainees in connection with last year’s protests. 

'This is another example of the intensifying practice in the Islamic Republic of Iran of detaining and imprisoning individuals without due process, and then persecuting the lawyers who try to access justice and address these egregious rights violations,' said Hadi Ghaemi, executive director of the CHRI. 'If he does not receive international calls for his release, the disability rights communities in Iran will endure a terrible loss,' he said. 'Silence would also green-light the unlawful detainment of other disability rights advocates.'

Meanwhile in another case, Saleh Nikbakht, who represented the family of 22-year-old Mahsa Jina Amini who died in state custody in September 2022, three days after her arrest for 'inappropriate hijab', has been sentenced to one year in prison, the CHRI said. Amini’s death sparked months of anti-state protests which eventually culminated into the 'Woman, Life, Freedom' movement.

Nikbakht was sentenced for speaking about the case with journalists, his lawyer, Ali Rezaie, said. 'Unfortunately, the court, without considering the defence presented by me and my client, sentenced him to the maximum penalty for ["propaganda against the state"]… As a person knowledgeable in law, I emphasize that there is not a single sentence in [Nikbakht’s] interviews that would constitute "propaganda against the state."'

Nibakht is currently at home pending an appeal. 

The CHRI called on the international legal community to 'speak out more forcefully against the Iranian government’s decades-long crusade to eliminate independent lawyers'.