Amnesty: Proposed Iranian Law Restricting Access to Lawyer Would Be Crushing Blow for Justice

A contemptible amendment to the Iran’s code of criminal procedure could effectively strip detainees who are facing punishments such as the death penalty, life imprisonment and amputation, of the right to access a lawyer while they are under investigation, Amnesty International announced on Thursday, May 16. An analysis of the bill published by the organization Thursday details how, if passed, the amended law would permit the prosecution to immediately deprive individuals arrested on “national security” and certain other serious criminal charges of access to a lawyer for 20 days, which…

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Three Death Sentences Carried Out in Tabriz

HRANA News Agency – Three prisoners were executed on charge of “murder” in Tabriz Central Prison on 26 November 2017. According to the report of Human Rights Activists News Agency in Iran (HRANA), On Sunday, 26 November 2017, three prisoners were executed on charge of “murder” in the central prison of Tabriz. The identity of one of these prisoners which has been confirmed by HRANA is: Taher Amini, 30, from Maragheh, imprisoned in ward 9 of Tabriz Central Prison. So far, the identities of two others who were detained in ward…

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

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…

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

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…

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

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…

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

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…

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

  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…

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Iran’s Executions and Human Rights Abuses Hit 27-Year High

The Islamic Republic hit the highest rate of executing people since 1989. The official number indicates that Iran executed nearly two times more people in 2015 in comparison to 2010 when the hardline president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was in office, as well as roughly 10 times more than the number of executions in 2005. Approximately 1000 people were executed in 2015, according to the latest report from the United Nations investigator, Ahmed Shaheed, the special rapporteur for human rights in Iran. The unofficial number is higher. The peak of the executions in 2015 was between April…

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Iran’s drug problem: Addicts ‘more than double’ in six years

The number of people suffering from drug addiction in Iran has more than doubled in the last six years, local media report. A survey carried out by a drug control group has found that about 2.8 million people are regularly consuming drugs in the country. Opium, the main ingredient in heroin, is the country’s most popular narcotic, making up 67% of consumption. Production of the drug in neighbouring Afghanistan has risen in recent years. A spokesman for the Drug Control Organisation, Parviz Afshar, said that marijuana and its derivatives accounted…

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