Istanbul , Turkey ( CNN ) -- A prominent Iranian human rights lawyer was under European diplomatic protection Friday after Turkish authorities released him from a detention center for illegal immigrants . Mohammad Mostafaei had barely made it to his hotel in Istanbul before diplomatic officials rushed to the scene and announced he was not safe . They swept him away in a car for his safety . `` After six days [ in detention ] , I 'm so tired I just want to go to my hotel and take a shower , '' Mostafaei said to CNN . `` I feel like I 'm still in detention . '' He has had to make difficult , life-altering decisions in recent weeks . The lawyer has been a longtime defender of Iranian juveniles facing the death penalty . More recently , he campaigned to attract international attention to the case of Sakineh Ashtiani , the 43-year-old mother of two who was sentenced to death by stoning after she was convicted of adultery . On July 24 , as activists around the world staged protests against Ashtiani 's death sentence , Mostafaei was taken in by Iranian authorities for hours of interrogation . After they released him , he said , he went into hiding . Around the same time , he said , Iranian security forces detained his wife and brother-in-law . The brother-in-law has been released , but Mostafaei said his wife Fereshteh is still being held in solitary confinement without charge . `` I am extremely worried about my wife and her safety , '' Mostafaei said in an earlier interview with CNN . `` They [ the Iranian authorities ] told me if you do n't turn yourself in , we will not let your family go , '' Mostafaei added . `` I made a decision , after I saw that they were still going to arrest me and mistreat me , that I must leave Iran . It was a very hard decision . '' He added , `` The truth is even when someone talks about Parmida and says her name , it 's really hard for me to talk and I want to cry when that happens . '' Like many other Iranian dissidents , Mostafaei slipped across the border from Iran to the eastern Turkish border town of Van . He blames himself for his detention , which began after he landed at the Istanbul airport from Van . `` It was my mistake . I went to the police officers inside the airport and declared myself as a refugee , '' he said on Friday . According to Turkish law , refugees requesting asylum must go through a registration process with the Turkish government and the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees . Normally it can take two years before a refugee is processed and granted asylum in another , typically Western country . But officials at the Turkish foreign ministry told CNN that in Mostafaei 's case , he was likely to be granted asylum in a European country within days . According to the refugee agency 's Ankara office , around 4,100 Iranian citizens currently are registered in Turkey and awaiting asylum in third-party countries . Metin Corabatir , the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees ' representative in Ankara , estimates that `` on a monthly basis there has been an increase of 25 to 50 '' Iranians requesting asylum , compared with before the Iranian government launched a crackdown on opposition activists following a controversial presidential election on June 12 , 2009 . Corabatir said 150 to 200 Iranians now request asylum in Turkey every month . In his conversation on Friday with CNN , Mostafaei expressed concern for the welfare of his imprisoned wife and his daughter , whom he left behind in Iran with her grandmother . He said he also worries about clients like Ashtiani . `` Who else will do my work ? '' he asked . Ashtiani , a mother of two , is reportedly still being held in Tabriz prison . Iran 's judiciary could reinstate her sentence of death by stoning , execute her by other means , or possibly even grant her a reprieve , according to human rights groups . CNN 's Yesim Comert in Istanbul and Mitra Mobasherat in Atlanta contributed to this report .
European diplomats whisked Mostafaei away shortly after his release . He is `` extremely worried '' about his wife , who is being held in Iran . She has been charged with spying for Israel and the United States. He was the attorney for the woman sentenced to be stoned to death .