Lawyers for Lawyers and the Centre for Supporters of Human Rights share grave concerns as to the sustained campaign of intimidation, harassment, arbitrary arrest and detention, criminal prosecution, professional sanctions and, in some cases, suspicious death faced by lawyers in the Islamic Republic of Iran. The report finds that this crackdown, which has sharply escalated since late 2025, targets lawyers for their role in defending protestors, political detainees and human rights defenders, undermining the independence of the legal profession and access to justice in Iran.
The report documents at least 23 lawyers arrested across eight provinces in direct connection with the protests that began on 28 December 2025, many held without disclosed charges. Among them is prominent women’s rights lawyer Shima Ghoosheh, who was arrested on 17 January 2026, held in Ward 209 of Evin Prison, and released two months later on bail of approximately USD 42,000 without ever being informed of the charges against her. Criminal cases have also been brought against at least 30 further lawyers who have not been detained, on charges including “propaganda against the regime,” “assembly and collusion against national security” and “spreading falsehoods,” in cities including Rasht, Mashhad, Shiraz and Tehran — among them 17 lawyers collectively summoned in Mashhad over social media commentary on human rights concerns, one of whom, Seyyed Enayatollah Karamati, has since been arrested.
Beyond the immediate protest-related crackdown, the report details a wider pattern of arbitrary detention and prosecution predating the protests, including the cases of Taher Naqavi, held in Evin Prison since February 2024, Mohammadreza Faghihi, serving a five-year sentence alongside a travel ban and practice ban, and Mohammad Najafi, imprisoned since 2018. It also documents more recent cases: charges opened against lawyers Amir Raisian and Milad Panahipour in April 2026 after they publicly reported on a death sentence handed down to a 19-year-old whose lawyer had been denied access to his case file; the arrest and month-long incommunicado detention of prominent lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh; and the arrest of Bahareh Sahraian in May 2026 after she appeared in court on behalf of clients detained during the January protests. The report links many of these cases to the Note to Article 48 of Iran’s Code of Criminal Procedure, which continues to bar defendants in security-related cases from choosing their own lawyer.
The report further documents the use of disbarment and other professional sanctions imposed through procedures that lack transparency, independence and any effective right of appeal — including practice bans imposed on lawyers Behnam Nezadi and Hoda Amid, the latter also sentenced to eight years’ imprisonment over her women’s rights education work. Most gravely, the report raises serious concerns about the death of lawyer Khosrow Alikordi, found dead in his Mashhad office on 8 December 2025 in circumstances authorities attributed to a heart attack, but where CCTV footage was reportedly confiscated and information withheld from his family — prompting more than 80 lawyers to call for an independent investigation. His brother and fellow lawyer, Javad Alikordi, was subsequently arrested after speaking at the memorial and charged with national security offences, with authorities refusing to recognise the family’s chosen legal representation.
These findings echo the conclusions of the UN’s Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Iran and the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran, both of whom reported to the Human Rights Council earlier this year on the scale of the crackdown and the systematic denial of fair trial rights and access to independent legal counsel.
Lawyers for Lawyers calls on the Iranian authorities to immediately and unconditionally release all lawyers detained solely for their professional work, quash convictions imposed on lawyers for their professional activities or human rights work, guarantee fair trial rights including access to a lawyer of one’s choosing, and conduct prompt, independent and transparent investigations into suspicious deaths and violence against lawyers.
Read the full version of the report here.
Lawyers for Lawyers will continue to monitor the situation of lawyers in Iran closely.
