Lawyer who represented U.S. President Joe Biden on sanctions against Iran is charged with conspiracy

A Palestinian law firm’s top lawyer has been charged with conspiring with a member of the U.N. Security Council to pressure the Trump administration to reverse sanctions against Tehran, the Justice Ministry said.

Ahmad Wissam Odeh, who represents the U:S.

president on sanctions on Iran, was arrested on Tuesday in the southern city of Al-Arak and is being held in a judicial detention facility in the Jerusalem district of Beit Hanoun, the ministry said in a statement.

The arrest came after Odeyh had appeared before the U’s special envoy to the United Nations, Robert Serry, on the matter.

Serry has accused the U of having engaged in “a deliberate, concerted effort to influence and obstruct the UNSC sanctions” against Iran.

The U.NSSC is the 193-member body tasked with imposing sanctions against the country.

The Israeli government has strongly denied that it has been involved in any such covert efforts to pressure Trump to rescind the sanctions.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry said in February that it was “not in a position to comment” on the allegations.

The Palestinian National Council said Odehs arrest followed a complaint by the Palestinian civil society group B’Tselem.

In an email, B’tselem’s executive director Rula Ma’an said that Odeys arrest is “the latest in a series of arrests of human rights defenders and human rights activists, including members of our community, that are part of a concerted effort by the Israeli state to prevent and silence their voices and to stifle the right to political freedom.”

Odeh has represented both the U and the U.-led U.K.-based Palestine Liberation Organization.