Month: January 2018

Iran’s Intelligence Ministry Killed Parastou Forouhar’s Parents. Now It’s Going After Her.

admin

An Iranian activist who has been seeking justice for her parents murdered by Iran’s Intelligence Ministry in 1998, will soon be put on trial based on charges brought by the same ministry. “I am due to be tried at Branch 28 of the Revolutionary Court [in Tehran] based on charges cooked up against me by the Intelligence Ministry last year,” blogged Parastou Forouhar on November 8, 2017. “The trial will take place three days after the anniversary of my parents’ murder,” wrote Forouhar, who lives in Germany where she works as a professional…

Read More

Iran Executes 19-Year-Old Charged as Juvenile in Violation of Two International Treaties

admin

Ignoring pleas by international organizations and in violation of two international treaties, Iran executed 19-year-old Amirhossein Pourjafar, who was sentenced to death as a juvenile, on January 4, 2018, in Tehran. Pourjafar was 16 when he was charged with raping and murdering a six-year-old girl. According to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and Convention on the Rights of the Child, it is illegal to execute someone for crimes committed under the age of eighteen. Iran is party to both treaties but remains one among a handful of countries still putting juveniles to…

Read More

Unable to Locate Activists, Iran’s Intelligence Ministry Illegally Detains Their Family Members

admin

The Iranian Intelligence Ministry has illegally detained or summoned close relatives of at least three activists from northwestern Iran since anti-government protests erupted in the region in late December 2017, the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) has learned. “One of the main principles of modern law is that… everyone is responsible for their own actions,” Iranian attorney Mohammad Moghimi told CHRI on January 22, 2018. “Ethics, fairness and justice dictate that no one should be punished for another person’s crimes.” “This principle has been in [Iran’s] Islamic Penal…

Read More

Detainees Arrested in Iranian Protests Facing Charges That Carry Death Penalty

admin

Some detainees arrested in the protests that broke out in Iran’s Hamadan and Khuzestan provinces in December 2017 are facing charges that are punishable by death, the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) has learned. “Some of them have been investigated, interrogated and charged with ‘rebellion,’” said a legal source in the city of Izeh, Khuzestan Province, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals. “The families of the freed detainees have been threatened a lot and are too afraid to talk,” added the source. “Most…

Read More

More than 150 Detained Iranian Protesters Have Requested “Pills,” Reports Committee

admin

Credible Sources Report That Detainees Told to Request Pills to Speed Up Release More than 150 people detained in the protests that broke out in Iran in December 2017 have requested opioid addiction treatment pills, according to the Tehran-based Committee for the Defense of the Dey 1396 Detainees. The committee’s statement follows credible reports that detainees in Tehran were told to admit to being drug addicts to speed up their release. “Out of about 400 people detained in the first three days [December 30, 2017-January 1, 2018], more than 150 asked for pills for…

Read More

Activists Atena Daemi and Golrokh Iraee Beaten and Transferred to Different Prison

admin

  Political prisoners Atena Daemi and Golrokh Ebrahimi Iraee were beaten by agents of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) in Tehran’s Evin Prison and transferred to Gharchak Prison in the city of Varamin, 37 miles south of the capital. “Atena called us this morning [January 25] and told us what happened,” Daemi’s mother, Masoumeh Nemati, told the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI). “She said that at 6:30 in the afternoon on January 24, agents came to theWomen’s Ward and told her and Golrokh that they need to come with them to the prison’s office…

Read More

The situation of the recent detainees in Kermanshah and Ilam is still unknown

admin

Seven bloggers and human rights activists have been arrested in Kermanshah and Ilam, and after a few weeks, nothing has been announced/published about their current situation and status.   According to human rights sources, during a new wave of arrests, Bahman Maleki, Farhad Heshmati, Ali Kouchakpour, Keivan Mohamadi and Hosein Tahmasbi in Kermanshah, and Javad Kheibar and Laleh Aghaei, were arrested in Ilam and their situation is still unknown. The reports show that Bahman Maleki was arrested at work on 30 December 2017, and was transferred to an unknown location…

Read More

3,700 people were arrested during Iran protests, lawmaker says

admin

Roughly 4000 people were arrested during recent anti-Regime protests in Iran, one of the country’s lawmakers claimed on Tuesday. Police and Sepah also arrested a large number of demonstrators in Tehran protests. The number is far higher than the 450 people Iranian authorities previously said were detained. US officials had put the number held at 1,000. Tehran member of parliament Mahmoud Sadeghi said Tuesday that 3,700 people had been arrested, including 40 to 68 students, in 5 days of protests that broke out in late December. He added that “due…

Read More