Lawyers in Rome, Madrid, Paris, The Hague and Berlin will today protest against the wrongful imprisonment of their colleagues in Iran. On this the International Day of the Endangered Lawyer, Iranian Embassies will be presented with a letter of protest from the Association of European Democratic Lawyers — a coalition of nine lawyers’ associations across Europe, works to “promote the respect of the rights of the defense and in particular to preserve the physical integrity as well as the political and economic freedom of lawyers” and works especially to support “those who are in precarious situations and those whose basic rights are not recognised or hardly acknowledged.”

Iran has imprisoned several of its human rights lawyers, who now join their clients in prison. Recorded human rights abuses reached an all time high in Iran’s post-election crisis and lawyers trying to defend citizens from unlawful detention and systematic torture have themselves been terrorised and have fallen victim to a system desperate to curb any activity that defends personal freedoms.

Others like Mohammad Mostafaei one of the lawyers for Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani have fled. His colleague on the case, Houtan Kian, remains in prison.