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Iranian Nobel Prize Winner Says She's Ready For Arrest


Shirin Ebadi (file photo) 16 January 2005 -- Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi said today she is ready to face arrest for refusing to appear before the Iran's Revolutionary Court.

Ebadi, a human rights lawyer and the only Iranian or Muslim woman to have ever won the Nobel Peace Prize, has defied a judiciary order to attend the court on legal grounds and challenged the Revolutionary Court's jurisdiction over private complaints.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said today that Ebadi was only the subject of a private complaint and was at worst facing a maximum fine equivalent to $57.

Ebadi was summoned to the Revolutionary Court over a private complaint against her, but the case was dispatched yesterday to another office of the same court.

Ebadi's lawyers yesterday went to the Revolutionary Court to challenge the summons.

The Revolutionary Court is mainly responsible for cases endangering national security such as espionage.

(AFP/Reuters)

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