Iran: a year of pressure on lawyers, at least 135 targeted by judicial and security authorities
A review of cases documented between September 2025 and September 2026 finds at least 135 attorneys across Iran subjected to judicial and security measures, including summonses, arrests, prison sentences, bans from practising law and travel restrictions. The compiler, HRANA, verified the identities of 60 lawyers across fourteen provinces and documented at least 75 further cases in which names were not made public, with collective actions concentrated in East Azerbaijan, Fars and Gilan. At least five lawyers are currently serving prison sentences, at least eleven more have been sentenced, and the arrests of at least 34 identified lawyers were documented. January 2026 was the heaviest month, with at least sixteen named lawyers arrested or subjected to judicial action amid nationwide protests. Mohammad Najafi, already imprisoned in Evin, was sentenced by a Tehran revolutionary court to three further years plus a fine and a two-year ban on leaving the country and on joining political or social groups, in a case opened against him while he was incarcerated. The survey names individuals and counts them by province, which turns a familiar description of pressure on Iranian lawyers into a figure that can be measured against next year’s.