2009 Award Ceremony
The 8th presentation of the Nuremberg International Human Rights Award took place on Sunday, October 4, 2009 in Nuremberg Opera House. For the first time the prize was awarded in absence of the prize winner.
Only a few minutes before boarding his flight to Nuremberg Abdolfattah Soltani's passport – with the exit stamp already in it – was seized by the Iranian authorities at Tehran airport. Soltani was prevented from leaving Iran.
Lord Mayor Dr. Ulrich Maly and all political speakers unanimously condemned the behavior of the Iranian government in the harshest of terms.
On behalf of Abdolfattah Soltani his wife, Masoumeh Deghan, received the Nuremberg International Human Rights Award.
The speeches made during the ceremony like the words of greeting by the Federal German Government, the Bavarian Government and the United Nations delivered by the former United Nations Special Rapporteuer on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers, as well as the tribute to the prizewinner by Souhayr Belhassen, President of the "Fédération Internationale des Ligues des Droits de l'Homme", are available as downloads.