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Sister Of Iran's Nobel Laureate Shirin Ebadi Arrested

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Human rights lawyer Shirin Ebadi
Human rights lawyer Shirin Ebadi
The sister of 2003 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi has been arrested by Iranian authorities, among 10 new arrests reported by the opposition on December 29.

Nushin Ebadi was detained at her home on December 28.

Shirin Ebadi told RFE/RL's Radio Farda that authorities from the Ministry of Information had threatened her sister and told her that she herself must give up her human rights work.

"When my sister was summoned [earlier] by the Ministry of Information, she was told that she has to move out of her house,” Shirin Ebadi told Radio Farda by phone. “She has a separate house, but it is in the same complex where I am living. And they told her if she doesn’t move, and if I continue working at my job, she will be arrested.”

“At first, I thought this was a joke. But unfortunately, it became clear to me that it was not a joke,” Ebadi said. “And on Monday [December 28] at 9 p.m., four people came to my sister’s house -- one of them was my previous interrogator, who had threatened to make an arrest -- and then she was arrested and taken away."

Ebadi said she does not know why her sister has been targeted.

"Whether I have done good or bad, I am responsible for it,” she said.

“My sister has neither participated in [the recent] Ashura demonstrations nor in previous demonstrations,” she continued. “Basically, fortunately or unfortunately, she is not involved in any human rights or social activities.”

A prominent journalist, Mashallah Shamsolvaezin, and a women's rights activist, Mansoureh Shojaee, were also reportedly detained the same night as Nushin Ebadi.

The developments come after at least eight people were killed in clashes between opposition protesters and security forces on December 27, the worst unrest in months.
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