Iranian Nobel winner Ebadi won’t obey court summons

1/15/2005 11:30:00 AM GMT

The Iranian Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi announced on Saturday that she won’t obey a summons by the Revolutionary Court even though she could be arrested.

Ebadi received the court summons last Thursday.

"The manner in which the summons has been arranged is illegal. I won't go to the court," Ebadi said.

"A summons has to specify the reason. That a summons is issued for somebody without specifying the reason and subject is illegal." She added.

Mohammad Ali Dadkhah, one of three lawyers representing Ebadi, said that the Revolutionary Court can arrest Ebadi for disobeying the summons order.

Although the court didn’t specify the reason for the summons, Dadkhah said that Ebadi was summoned to testify as a witness, not as an accused.

The summons was issued on Wednesday, ordering Ebadi to present herself to the court within three days. But because she received it on Thursday, Dadkhah said that the deadline was Sunday.

The U.S. State Department said that it is closely watching the situation.

"We will continue to follow closely the (Iranian) government's actions against Ms. Ebadi and others," State Department spokesman, Richard Boucher, said on Friday.

Dadkhah, who co-founded the Center for Protecting Human Rights with Ebadi and many other lawyers, said Friday that the center doesn’t recognize the Revolutionary Courts because "they are not mentioned in the constitution."

"Even if there was a need for these courts, it was only in the early years of the 1979 Islamic Revolution. A revolutionary court 26 years after the revolution seems irrelevant," Dadkhah said.

Ebadi signs book deal with U.S. publisher

Meanwhile, an American publisher, Random House, said that it will publish Ebadi’s memoirs in the United States after a change in the U.S. rules on publication of authors from sanctioned countries.

Random House said that Ebadi's book would "offer a vivid picture of the struggles of a woman whose spirit has remained strong in the face of political upheaval, persecution, and the challenges that women around the world face as they raise families and pursue their work."

"This will be a book of great importance," said Gina Centerello, president of Random House Publishing Group.

The change in the publication ban by the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control came after Ebadi sued the United States because its sanctions prevented the U.S. publication of her memoirs.

Ebadi was Iran’s first female judge and the first Muslim woman to win the Nobel Peace prize, which she was awarded in 2003.