LATEST: Former Political Prisoner Sotoudeh Calls on Bar Association to Speak Out for Detained Lawyers

The Sunni insurgency Jaish ul-Adl said on Sunday that it has executed one of the five Iranian border guards kidnapped on February 6 in southeastern Iran.

Jaish ul-Adl said that it had hung the Iranian sergeant because of the regime’s “oppression and cruelty” and that it would return the guard’s body in return for the bodies of 50 “martyrs”.

Interior Ministry spokesman Hossein Ali Amiri denied the report, “The ministry rejects the (claim of the) Iranian hostage’s execution and all five border guards are in good health — if otherwise, the Interior Ministry would know about it.”

Jaish ul-Adl, part of a long-time Baluch insurgency in Sistan Baluchestan Province, took the guards into Pakistan soon after the abduction. Iranian officials have been in contact with Pakistani counterparts with no apparent progress towards the release of the men.

Tehran has threatened to pursue the captors inside Pakistan if no action is taken. Last week it closed the border with Pakistan for 10 days.

The insurgents said they would free the men in exchange for the release of 300 detainees, including 50 of their colleagues and 50 women.

The Governor of Sistan Baluchestan Province said Sunday, “Talks with national and local Pakistani officials have been held at different levels and they have made some promises” about the kidnapped guards.

Jaish ul-Adl has carried out a series of attacks on Iranian forces in Sistan Baluchestan since last summer, including an October assault that killed 14 troops and border guards.

Former Political Prisoner Sotoudeh Calls on Bar Association to Speak Out for Detained Lawyers

Nasrin Sotoudeh, the prominent human rights lawyer imprisoned for three years, has called on the Iranian Bar Association to speak out for detained and harassed attorneys:

A large number of attorneys are still in prison because of their oath of professional commitment….

Many of our colleagues have been forced to leave Iran and they suffer from violence imposed on their private lives by those in power….A large number of honest and good members of the legal profession have been disqualified by the judiciary branch.

Sotoudeh asked, “Are attorneys who are wrongly in prison these days not entitled to a deserving defense? Does the bar association not have the power to defend its members?”

Sotoudeh was freed from prison last October; however, leading attorneys are still behind bars, including Abdolfattah Soltani, Seyed Mohammad Seifzadeh, Mostafa Daneshjoo, Farshid Yadollahi, Omid Behrouzi, and Amir Eslami.

Others such as Mohammad Mostafaei have been forced to flee Iran, spending years in exile.

Tehran Rejects Canadian Court Ruling for Seizure of Iranian Assets

The Foreign Ministry has rejected a Canadian court’s ruling for the seizure of more than $7 million of Iranian assets and properties.

On Thursday, a judge in Ontario ruled in favor of plaintiffs who alleged the Islamic Republic funds terrorist groups. Litigants included the families of two Americans who were held hostage in Beirut and a Canadian dentist who was badly burned in a 1997 Jerusalem suicide bombing.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Marzieh Afkham said, “Given the approach of the Canadian government, it is crystal clear that the verdict is politically-motivated and such rulings have no legal value.”

Canada closed its embassy in Tehran, recalling five diplomats, on September 8.