A/HRC/31/26 unknown at the end of December 2015. In April 2015, Esmail Abdi, General Secretary of the Association, was ordered to resign from his position and threated with the implementation of a sentence previously issued against him of 10 years of imprisonment. On 27 June, while travelling to Armenia, he was arrested at the border and his passport confiscated. He was then directed to the prosecutors’ office in Tehran. He has since been held in solitary confinement and his family has been allowed access to him only once, in the presence of an interrogator. He has not been provided information regarding the charges against him.28 The authorities reported that on 22 August, Mr. Abdi was indicted on charges of assembly and collusion, crimes against national security and propaganda against the State. E. Situation of human rights defenders and other civil society actors 32. The situation of human rights defenders in the Islamic Republic of Iran remains worrisome. The Government has taken no practical measures to open up space for human rights activists and lawyers. Most of the prominent human rights activists and lawyers are serving prison terms or are subjected to travel bans and bans on the exercise of their profession. In July 2015, the Iranian bar association only reduced to nine months the threeyear ban on practising law imposed in 2014 on Nasreen Sotoudeh, an internationally known lawyer and human rights activist. In addition, authorities have harassed and threatened people who have expressed solidarity with Ms. Sotoudeh during her eight-month-long protest against the ban, which she staged in front of the bar association from October 2014 to June 2015. 33. Narges Mohammadi, former Vice-President of the Defenders of Human Rights Centre and one of the founders of the group Step by Step to Stop the Death Penalty, has been continually harassed, imprisoned and subjected to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment since her conviction in April 2012 on charges of assembly and collusion against national security, membership in the Defenders of Human Rights Centre and spreading propaganda against the Government. Ms. Mohammadi was arrested on 5 May 2015 despite her poor health. Her medical condition, which includes muscular paralysis and lung complications, has lately deteriorated significantly. Following a medical emergency on 7 October, when she had a neurological attack that led to partial numbness of her body, she was taken to a specialist hospital. Although doctors had ordered her immediate hospitalization, she was returned to the prison, where her condition deteriorated further. On 11 October, Ms. Mohammadi was hospitalized outside the prison. She was reportedly chained hand and foot to her bed, under the constant surveillance of three guards. Since her hospitalization, she has suffered convulsions on at least three occasions but has reportedly been denied the necessary treatment. 29 34. The Secretary-General remains concerned about allegations of acts of reprisals in the form of intimidation against individuals for their cooperation with the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran. In his report to the Human Rights Council at its thirtieth session (A/HRC/30/29), the Secretary-General referred to reprisals against 10 individuals owing to their engagement or contacts with the Special Rapporteur. The Secretary-General reiterates that reprisal against individuals should cease immediately as it is contrary to the principle of human dignity and violates numerous human rights. 28 29 10 See www.tuc.org.uk/iranteacherleader and www.ei-ie.org/congress7/en/637-iranian-teacher-unionleader-jailed. See www.fidh.org/en/issues/human-rights-defenders/iran-the-cruel-inhuman-treatment-of-msnargess-mohammadi-must-stop-18652.