He was arrested at the end of 2018 for, among other things, insulting the Supreme Leader and propaganda against the state. He was sentenced to a total of thirty years in prison and 111 lashes. Released in June, he was reincarcerated thirteen days later to serve a ten-year prison sentence in Tehran, where he remains. In 2018, the prize had already gone to an Iranian lawyer, Nasrin Sotoudeh.
Judicial harassment
“By once again awarding the prize to an Iranian lawyer, who has suffered real judicial harassment and has been imprisoned for several years, the jury wanted to underline that the forces of democracy and human rights defenders were falling asleep in the face of to the ever-renewed threat from Iran, and to the fate reserved for its lawyers”, indicated Maître Bertrand Favreau, creator of the prize and president of the jury.
Amirsalar Davoudi is singled out as at least 36 people have been killed in Iran in recent days, according to the Center for Human Rights in Iran, a New York-based NGO, in protests sparked by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini. after his arrest by the vice squad. The jury also awarded the prize for the bar of the year to that of Warsaw “for its defense of the independence of magistrates while the Polish government puts them under the yoke”.
