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To escape Iran, Mohammad Mostafaei traveled for more then 10 hours on foot and on horseback over the mountains, crossing the border illegally into Turkey.

Soon afterwards, he ended up in a detention center for illegal immigrants in Istanbul, where he was incarcerated for nearly a week.

After several surreal and sometimes dangerous weeks, Mostafaei's journey appears to finally be over. He now strolls the tidy, rain-soaked streets of Norway's capital, safe from the Iranian security forces who he claims targeted him. But Mostafaei is far from at ease.

"I don't like to be a refugee, nor do I like to work abroad," he says. "My love is to remain in Iran and help people who somehow have been oppressed whether by society or by the law or by the judicial system. But regrettably, I became a victim."

Mostafaei is a human rights lawyer. He specializes in defending Iranians under the age of 18, who have been sentenced to death for crimes ranging from murder to sodomy.

Iran ranks second in the world after China for annual executions of prisoners. But according to Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, Iran leads the world for the number of death sentences carried out against juvenile defendants. Human Rights Watch reports that since 2005, the Iranian judiciary has executed dozens of Iranians who were convicted of crimes committed below the age of 18.

"I have worked and handled 40 cases so far and out of these, thank God, 18 were saved," Mostafaei says. "Regrettably four were hanged. The rest need help."

The defense attorney appeared to have finally crossed a red line due to his outspoken defense of Sakine Mohammadi Ashtiani, the 43-year-old mother of two who was sentenced to death by stoning after being convicted of committing adultery. International uproar over the case has been a source of embarrassment for the Islamic Republic.

Activists around the world have staged protests demanding Iranian authorities commute the sentence. More recently, the president of Brazil, whose government recently broke with Western countries and voted in the United Nations Security Council against imposing a fresh round of sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program, made a public offer of asylum to help Ashtiani escape the death sentence. Tehran rejected that offer.

On July 24th, Mostafaei says he was brought into Tehran's Evin prison for hours of interrogation. He was later released, only to discover that, in his absence, security forces had raided his office and detained his wife and brother-in-law.

"The hostage-taking led me to leave the country," Mostafaei says.

When Mostafaei was later detained after smuggling himself into Turkey, the Norwegian government intervened at the highest level to have him released.

"There is a courageous man who raises cases-- difficult cases-- which the authorities don't like and he sees himself in a position where he has to flee across a mountain. He sees his wife imprisoned. Well, I think we should wake up and speak out," said Jonas Gahr Støre, the Foreign Minister of Norway, in an interview with CNN.

The defense attorney appeared to have finally crossed a red line due to his outspoken defense of Sakine Mohammadi Ashtiani, the 43-year-old mother of two who was sentenced to death by stoning after being convicted of committing adultery. International uproar over the case has been a source of embarrassment for the Islamic Republic.

Activists around the world have staged protests demanding Iranian authorities commute the sentence. More recently, the president of Brazil, whose government recently broke with Western countries and voted in the United Nations Security Council against imposing a fresh round of sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program, made a public offer of asylum to help Ashtiani escape the death sentence. Tehran rejected that offer.

On July 24th, Mostafaei says he was brought into Tehran's Evin prison for hours of interrogation. He was later released, only to discover that, in his absence, security forces had raided his office and detained his wife and brother-in-law.

"The hostage-taking led me to leave the country," Mostafaei says.

When Mostafaei was later detained after smuggling himself into Turkey, the Norwegian government intervened at the highest level to have him released.

"There is a courageous man who raises cases-- difficult cases-- which the authorities don't like and he sees himself in a position where he has to flee across a mountain. He sees his wife imprisoned. Well, I think we should wake up and speak out," said Jonas Gahr Støre, the Foreign Minister of Norway, in an interview with CNN.

"I hope Iran will get better in the future," Mostafaei said, during a rainy walk along a waterfront boardwalk in Oslo. "But I don't know when. Maybe five years, ten years, I don't know."

Then, his mood momentarily brightened as he pointed across Oslo's harbor, exclaiming "very beautiful."

A rainbow had appeared over the water... a much-needed sign of hope, perhaps, for a man who has lost his job, his country, and now faces prolonged separation from his wife and daughter.

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