Iranian Cops Raid Nobel Winner's Office

Iranian police today raided the office of a human rights group led by Nobel prize-winning activist Shirin Ebadi, Reuters reports. The office was hours away from hosting a Human Rights Day celebration when cops shut it down. "We will protest against it," said Ebadi. "It will not deprive us from our rights activities." Prosecutors charged the group with operating a political party.

Workers at the center said police didn't show a warrant during the raid. Ebadi has frequently criticized Tehran's human rights record, most recently at a United Nations forum last week in Geneva. But Iran’s judiciary insists that the center “had illegal contacts with local and foreign organizations.”
(More Iran stories.)