Iranian pastor Yousef Nadarkhani’s attorney — called by many a hero for his representation of religious minorities — has been convicted and could begin serving a nine-year sentence soon in a development that will leave Nadarkhani without a lawyer.
Like Nadarkhani’s conviction, the case of attorney Mohammad Ali Dadkhah also is controversial. Dadkhah said he was convicted of acting against national security, spreading propaganda and keeping banned books at home, according to the Guardian newspaper in the U.K.
Dadkhah has represented Nadarkhani, who was sentenced to death in 2010 for converting from Islam to Christianity, in a case that began in 2009.
It’s possible that no attorney will step up and represent Nadarkhani. Dadkhah previously told the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) that if he himself was placed in jail, “no attorney would be willing” to take Nadarkhani’s case out of fear of “being imprisoned or disbarred” for representing the Christian pastor. Dadkhah represented 12 Christians in Iran in April who had been charged with several crimes, including apostasy — that is, leaving Islam.
Jordan Sekulow, executive director of the ACLJ, called Dadkhah a “world-renowned Muslim human rights attorney.”
(BP)
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