This is not the first time Sotoudeh has been imprisoned. Since 2010, the 62-year-old lawyer has been arrested numerous times and subjected to prolonged solitary confinement. She was previously sentenced to about 38 years in prison, 148 lashes, and a 20-year ban from practicing law. Public pressure and her deteriorating health led to releases and furloughs.
Sotoudeh's struggles are emblematic of many lawyers in Iran and around the world.
In the struggle against authoritarianism, it may seem futile to rely on broken and corrupt justice systems to benefit citizens. Yet, the courage and determination of lawyers who insist upon proper enforcement of the law, even in corrupt and dictatorial regimes, stand as their own form of powerful dissent. In attacking lawyers, authoritarians reveal a deep fear that fair trials and the rule of law threaten their power.
Take Russia, where Vladimir Putin has long used the “ritual of the law” to give the appearance of a free and fair legal system, allowing lawyers to defend its most vocal critics even when there is no hope of a just outcome. The capture of the Russian judiciary has been a lengthy and intentional process resulting in courts that frequently provide nothing more than “telephone justice,” whereby judges do the bidding of state officials who simply call in their preferred outcome. Recently, however, the Kremlin has cracked down on any lawyers taking up these cases, culminating in the exile and arrests of Russia’s most capable and courageous lawyers.
By targeting lawyers, Putin removed one of his best-known political opponents. Another of Putin’s well-known pro-democracy adversaries, opposition leader Vladimir Kara-Murza, found his lawyer, Vadim Prokhorov, forced into exile under threat of prosecution at the end of Kara-Murza’s sham trial. Other human rights lawyers have been recently prosecuted in Russia, including Maria Bontsler, a prominent lawyer who defended individuals persecuted by politically motivated charges. Bontsler has been held in pre-trial detention since May 2025, as her health continues to dangerously deteriorate.
Underlying such obvious acts of aggression lies an insidious tendency for transnational repression to flow from despots into democracies, oppressing lawyers of all nationalities in the process.
To protect the rule of law globally, we must leverage tools like targeted Magnitsky sanctions, which not only name and shame perpetrators but impose real costs, such as visa bans and asset freezes. International criminal court complaints for transnational repression on the territory of member states could potentially also be pursued. Strengthening international legal norms protecting lawyers is necessary, which makes the recently launched Convention for the Protection of the Profession of Lawyer especially timely and worthy of wide support.
We believe that, as it relates to our freedoms and the future of our democracies, the cost of inaction is far too high.
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