“In Iran, I have freedom of expression, but not freedom of expression. » Renowned lawyer Saleh Nikbakht never lacks humor and anecdotes to soften his comments, however heavy on Iran and the poor state of human rights in his country.
For more than a year, the 71-year-old man has been the lawyer for the family of Mahsa (Jina) Amini, whose death on September 16, 2022, in police custody for an outfit judged “not Islamic enough”, set the whole country on fire. The wave of protests following the death of the 22-year-old Iranian woman of Kurdish origin was the longest and most intense in the history of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The repression which fell on the entire Iranian society and caused at least 525 civilian victims did not overcome the desire of Mahsa Amini’s family and her lawyer to demand justice.
At the beginning of December, Mahsa Amini’s parents were prevented by Iranian security services from leaving Iran for France where they were to receive the Sakharov Prize, awarded for freedom of thought by the European Parliament to their daughter and “Woman, Life, Liberty” movement. Only their lawyer was allowed to leave the country. At the European Parliament, on December 12, Saleh Nikbakht read, in Kurdish, the message from Mahsa Amini’s mother, Mojgan Eftekhari. “Jina’s pain is eternal for me, and it is eternal for people around the world. I firmly believe that her name, alongside that of Joan of Arc, will remain a symbol of freedom.”she wrote.
Upon his return to Iran on December 22, Saleh Nikbakht was questioned at length at Imam Khomeini International Airport in Tehran. His phone, computer, passport and the Sakharov Prize were confiscated. The agents told him that he would soon have to report to Evin prison, in northern Tehran, to serve his one-year detention sentence. The lawyer was convicted for giving interviews to media, in Iran and abroad, to denounce the handling of the death of Mahsa Amini by the judiciary.
“I will continue, even if it kills me”
” They [la République islamique] are very sensitive about me. They tell me not to give interviews to the mediaexplains Saleh Nikbakht, met in Paris before his departure for Iran. But I will continue, even if it kills me. »
Like the Amini, Saleh Nikbakht is from the city of Saghez, located in Iranian Kurdistan in western Iran. “Mahsa’s uncle was my Arabic teacher in high school”, he explains. When the young girl died after her arrest by the police, the lawyer published on his Telegram channel (encrypted messaging) an interview with Mahsa Amini’s father, who rejected the official version of the authorities. Since the young woman’s death, Iranian leaders have repeatedly insisted that she was not mistreated by the police, but that she died because of her medical history. The lawyer was immediately contacted by the family of the deceased who asked him to represent them. Saleh Nikbakht accepts without hesitation. “I have a track record of defending journalists, political activists, writers, trade unionists and people belonging to ethnic minorities. I have already saved thirty-one people from the death penalty.”explains the man who, for forty years, as an experienced jurist, has relied on the law to confront the Iranian authorities.
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