An open letter to Ayatollah Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran, from Andrew Walker QC and Kirsty Brimelow QC of the Bar Council of England and Wales. The Bar Council of England and Wales and the Bar Human Rights Committee of England and Wales express profound concern for lawyers and other human rights defenders in Iran who continue to be persecuted for undertaking their professional obligations to their clients, enabling them to exercise the basic human right of access to justice. Such conduct breaches principle 16 of the UN Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers.