Mohammad Mostafaei

Mostafaei speaking at The Times' "Imprisoned in Iran" event. Mohammad Mostafaei (, born 1974 ) is an Iranian human rights lawyer specializing in death penalty cases, particularly those with juvenile defendants and other human rights cases. In 2010, he moved to Norway, having left Iran due to alleged persecution by authorities for his defense of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani.

Mostafaei is married to Fereshteh Halimi. They have two daughters.

Legal work Mostafaei states that he appealed forty death sentences of juvenile defendants during his work in Iran, of which eighteen were overturned. Four of his clients were executed in 2008 and 2009. The stoning sentence was commuted in July 2010 in the face of world pressure.

During the case, Mostafaei's wife, father-in-law, and brother-in-law were imprisoned in what Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty described as "an apparent attempt to pressure him to back down." Mostafaei then illegally crossed the border into Turkey and sought asylum in Norway. The Norwegian government granted the asylum, Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre calling Mostafaei "a courageous man who raises cases -- difficult cases -- which the authorities don't like". He continued to work on human rights issues in Norway, describing himself as "maybe 10 times more [active]" than he had been in Iran.

In 2012 Mohammad Mostafaei, established Universal Tolerance Organization (UTO) in Norway.