A lawyer who has defended political prisoners including Iranian Christians has been arrested again in Shiraz, according to reports.

According to the Emtedad website, Bahar Sahraian was detained on Saturday, 16 May, while following up on her cases at the Shiraz Revolutionary Court.

She was reportedly taken to the prosecutor’s office that same morning and charged with “assembly and collusion to act against national security”, “propaganda activities against the Islamic system”, and “publishing falsehoods”, before being sent to Adel Abad Prison.

In 2022, Bahar was one of over 30 lawyers arrested in the wake of the nationwide protests that followed the death in custody of Mahsa Jina Amini. At that time, like today, thousands of protesters were awaiting trial but were without recourse to legal advice, amid calls for them to be sentenced to death.

Bahar has defended clients including Sam Khosravi and Maryam Falahi, whose adopted daughter, Lydia, was ordered by a court to be removed from their care because they had converted to Christianity and Lydia was considered to have been born a Muslim; and Sara Ahmadi and Homayoun Zhaveh, who were sentenced to a combined 10 years in Tehran’s Evin Prison, even though Homayoun, in his 60s, suffered from advanced Parkinson’s disease.

In Sam and Maryam’s case, Bahar managed to obtain two fatwas from Grand Ayatollahs – the most senior Shia Islamic authority in Iran – declaring that, owing to the “critical nature” of the case, poor health of the child and undisputed emotional attachment with her parents, Lydia’s adoption by Christian converts was “permissible”.

She was also one of 120 lawyers to sign an open letter to the head of the judiciary at the time, Ebrahim Raisi, calling on him to overturn the decision. (He did not.)

Another lawyer who has defended several Christians, Shima Ghosheh, was arrested in January this year and released in March on bail equivalent to nearly $40,000 dollars.

Shima has represented Christians including the Iranian-Assyrian Bet-Tamraz family and converts facing charges of “apostasy”, which in the past has resulted in death sentences.