Agence France Press reports:

TEHERAN - Nobel peace laureate Shirin Ebadi is to defend a US-Iranian scholar awaiting trial in Teheran on national security charges, a lawyer from Ebadi’s human rights group told ISNA news agency on Wednesday.

Ebadi and two other lawyers from her Human Rights Defenders Centre agreed to represent Haleh Esfandiari following a request from the detainee’s mother, said Mohammad Seifzadeh, one of the lawyers concerned.

“In a letter this morning to the case inspector we asked to have a meeting with the defendant,” he was quoted as saying.