Sotoudeh represented several women arrested for protesting against the mandatory wearing of headscarves

Award-winning Iranian human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh faces prosecution on state security charges following her arrest in the capital last week, her husband said yesterday. Sotoudeh, 55, denies the charges but remains in the women’s wing of Tehran’s notorious Evin prison after refusing to post bail of $95,000 (more than 80,000 euros), Reza Khandan told the ISNA news agency. “My wife is accused of conspiracy, assembly and propaganda against the system” of rule of the Islamic republic, Khandan said. “My wife considers the accusations against her to be baseless and made up, and the bail demand to be disproportionate,” he added. Sotoudeh, who is one of the few outspoken advocates for human rights in Iran, was detained in her Tehran home on June 13. Her arrest has been condemned by the US State Department and human rights group Amnesty International, which both called for her immediate release. Earlier this year, Sotoudeh represented several women arrested for protesting against the mandatory wearing of headscarves in Iran. Tehran police said in February that 29 women had been detained for posing in public without their headscarves. Sotoudeh won the European Parliament’s prestigious Sakharov rights award in 2012 for her work on high-profile human rights and political cases, including those on death row for offences committed as minors.