Iran: refute

Friday, two brothers were hanged in public in the city of Khorramabad, province Lorestan.



The men, named Reza and Saeid Z. were hanged in Shora Street amid heavy security.
They had been charged with launching an armed attack on Khorramabad’s City Hall in 2005, killing one of its staff, in an apparent revenge attack after another brother of theirs was executed in prison.
They also were convicted of spreading fear in society, taking part in armed clashes with agents of Iran’s State Security Forces, and being “mohareb”, or waging war on God.


Sweden has again started expelling Iranian homosexuals seeking asylum.

since the hanging of two teenage-homosexuals last year there was a freeze on expelling.
Sweden is basing their decision on reports from the Swedish Embassy in Teheran which claim that homosexuals risk no dangers there – as long as they are discrete.


The National Council of Resistance in Iran has given out a statement to the series of articles, written by Stewart Bell in Canadian daily National Post.
In 12 paragraphs NCRi counters the accusations against People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI).
The statement ends concluding the series of articles published by the National Post is not only an insult to freedom of speech but also an insult to integrity of journalism.



In Iran deathpenalty is in use. Also for child offenders.

Children are being hanged to death.
A child will be hanged to death.
Poster amnesty.nl

Iran: explosive

An explosion occurred at turkish-iranian natural gas pipeline near the city of Bazargan.
There were conflicting reports about which side of the border the explosion was on.
and if there was any damage. Iranian media said the explosion was in Turkey.




The British Ahwazi Frienddhip Society received reports that Nazem Boraihi and other Ahwazis sentenced to death by the Revolutionary Courts in Ahwaz have had their sentences over-turned by the Diwan Aali Kol Keshwar (High Bureau for Justice) in Tehran.
Boraihi is one of 16 Ahwazis sentenced to death for allegedly participating in bomb attacks in Ahwaz in 2005. Boraihi has been in prison since 2000.
Amnesty International, the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organisation (UNPO), the Ahwaz Human Rights Organisation, EU and BAFS have campaigned against these deathsentences.




Tuesdaynight, in the city of Utrecht(The Netherlands) is a family of four, with children from 9 and 11 years old, violently taken by police and transported to the detentioncenter Zestienhoven.
People, visiting the family in Zestienhoven, said the man was wounded and bruised and the woman had also been kicked at and beaten up.

A police-unit, formed by six masked and armed men took the family at 5 AM , still dressed in pyamas. Bystanders and the family and their children are said to be threatened at gunpoint.
The family is not entitled to get asylum in The Netherlands because of the fact they asked in Germany first.
The family turned to christian religion from moslim, so there is fear for prosecution when they're sent to Iran.



In Iran deathpenalty is in use. Also for child offenders.

Children are being hanged to death.
A child will be hanged to death.
Poster amnesty.nl

Iran: law

The head of Iran’s official news agency IRNA, Ahmad Khadem-Almelleh, has resigned from his post over a dispute with the country’s Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance Mohammad-Hossein Saffar-Harandi.
He said that he had differences with Saffar-Harandi over how the official daily “Iran” should be run.
A ban on the daily Iran, which had been in place for the past four months, was lifted on Tuesday.
IRNA holds the publishing licence for the official daily.

A court in the city of Marshad, sentenced a man to have one of his eye’s gouged out.
The man, only named Amir, was accused of blinding a man during a fight. The man is also convicted to 74 lashes.
The phrase “An eye for an eye” is very stringently adhered to in Iran’s Islamic law.


Blogger Mojtaba Saminejad has been early released from jail.
He was been sent to prison for 2 years and 10 months, for 'immoral behaviour' and 'publishing false information with the aim of unsettling public opinion' .




Another blogger, Arash Sigarchi 'sentenced for three years, for 'insulting the Supreme Guide” and “propaganda against the regime', is still in prison.





In Iran deathpenalty is in use. Also for child offenders.

Children are being hanged to death.
A child will be hanged to death.
Poster amnesty.nl

Iran: incommunicado

June 12th arrested Ali Akbar Mousavi Khoini has been
tortured in Evinprison.
Human Rights Watch told this Tuesday.
Former member of parliament is been held without charge for more than three months.
Last Thursday, September 21, the authorities allowed Mousavi Khoini to attend the end of a memorial service for his father, who had died 40 days earlier.A person who attended the memorial service told Human Rights Watch that Mousavi Khoini�s head and neck were visibly bruised.
Several persons who attended the event saw that Mousavi Khoini�s guards prevented him from seeing his wife when he arrived. In response, Mousavi Khoini started to speak loudly and ask for help, saying that his jailers were torturing him.
"For the past 20 days, prison officials have chained my hands and feet. I am being tortured, I am held in solitary confinement and interrogated four times a day. They wake me up in the middle of the night to interrogate me. They are forcing me to denounce my beliefs, to repent for my activities, and to ask forgiveness from Khamene�i, I am resisting, but they are putting me under tremendous pressure" he told told the crowd at the memorial service
His lawyer Abdulfattah Soltani has not have been able to contact him and his wife Zohreh Islamian, was not allowed to visit him for the past month she has had only one telephone conversation with him during this period.


Latest news about dutch Faleh ‘Abdoullah al-Mansouri is, that he probably is in Karoun-prison in Ahwaz-city, province Khuzestan.

For a long time his whereabouts were unsure.
Where the other three, from Syria to Iran deported ahwazi, Rasool Mezrea', Jamal ‘Obeidawi and Taher ‘Ali Mezrea' are,is still unknown.





In Iran deathpenalty is in use. Also for child offenders.

Children are being hanged to death.
A child will be hanged to death.
Poster amnesty.nl

Iran: showing off

Statesecurityforces in the city of Hamedan announced a crackdown
on people eating in public during ramadan.
Flyers,distributed across the city by the SSF and the Ministry of Justice state that anyone spotted to be eating food in public would be arrested and handed over for prosecution.


September 25th, Amnesty International made a Public Statement concerning the ongoing crackdown against peaceful critics.
AI has deep concern about the new arrests and detentions of human rights activists, minority community activists and others peacefully exercising their rights to freedom of expression and association.

During the last days Iranian Azerbaijanis advocating a schools boycott and at least 10 people who sought to demonstrate against the imminent execution of four women were arrested.
Also a prominent human rights defender Ali Akbar Mousavi-Kho’ini, is detained for over 100 days, without charge or trial.
The detained Azerbaijani include Esedullah Selimi, Iskender Mirza’i, Mehdi Vahidi, Eli Sediq Beyreq, Chengiz Bekhtaver, Gholamreza Emani, Hassan Ark, three brothers, Mostafa, Morteza, and Mohammad Reza Evezpoor, Fereydun Mehdipour and Mohammad Hossein Pourghorban.

Three men were hanged in Zahedan prison at Sunday .

Semi-official Jomhouri Islami reported Ali Karimi, Gholam Koohkan, and Khodamorad Lashkarzadeh were executed for drug trafficking.
In Zahedan This weekends total executions make 7.


In the city of Abadan ship workers
have held a 72 hour strike in protest for not being paid for six months.

The strike ended after the management agreed to pay the workers.
However, according to ILNA, workers have yet to be paid.
The trade union movement in Ahwaz's ship and oil industries are an important base for Ahwazi Arabs.




In Iran deathpenalty is in use. Also for child offenders.

Children are being hanged to death.
A child will be hanged to death.
Poster amnesty.nl

Iran: heavy

At mass protestactions in Jolfa against all persian-language schools five azeri have been arrested. Their names are Mahammadriza Hatami, Huseyn Shamsi, Adil Shukru, Reza Molai en Sohrab Reshtberi.



In Zahedan, province Sistan-e-Baluchestan, four men have been hanged.
Daily Khorassan wrote that Shah Mohammad, Nader Reigi, Abdol-Ali Baluch, en Mohammad Shakib Saturday have been hanged in Zahedan prison.
Zahedan Zahedan also sentenced two women and one man to execution
In the city of Mashad, the judiciary sentenced a man, identified only by his first name Hossein, to execution.





Iran have withdrawn from the world weightlifting championships in Santo Domingo after nine of the 11 team members tested positive on doping.
Olympic and world heavyweight champion Hossein Rezazadeh was not among the athletes who had tested positive.







In Iran deathpenalty is in use. Also for child offenders.

Children are being hanged to death.
A child will be hanged to death.
Poster amnesty.nl

Iran: objectives

Tuesday, September 12th was the launch of The International Committee in Defense of Ashraf in a meeting at the European Parliament .
The meeting was initiated by Friends of a Free Iran,, a parliamentary committee at the European Parliament co-chaired by Euro MPs, Paulo Casaca and Struan Stevenson.
Speakers in the meeting condemned the clerical regime’s conspiracies against the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran(PMOI) based in Ashraf City, Iraq, called on the Iraqi government to safeguard the rights of the PMOI members under the Fourth Geneva Convention
They also reiterated that the PMOI members have been living in Iraq since 1986 as political refugees and stressed that the new Iraqi government should reaffirm their status.



The National Post starts with a serie of articles, written by Stewart Bell, a reporter specialized on terrorism,in which is described how iranian/canadian teenagers get recruited by Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK, also called Peoples Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI)) and sent to camp Ashraf to get a guerilla-training to overthrow the iranian government.
MEK is a banned terrorist organization under Canadian law since 2005.
The article is based on interviews, and videomaterial which the Post claims to have seen.

Dozens of people, mostly women applauded when Saturday spaceshuttle Soyuz TMA-9 with aboard Anousheh Ansari appeared in the sky.
The spaceshuttle was visible to the naked eye for about two minutes, at the Zaferanieh Observatory in Teheran while streaking across the sky.
The achievement of Anousheh Ansari is a rolemodel to many women.


A man, accused of drugstrafficking was hanged Friday in province Sistan-e-Baluchestan.

Newspaper Etabad reported Mohammad Sh. was hanged in Zahedan prison.




In Iran deathpenalty is in use. Also for child offenders.

Children are being hanged to death.
A child will be hanged to death.
Poster amnesty.nl

Iran: new and improved

Today, the schools in Iran have started the new schoolyear .
The Education Ministry has also announced a ban on male teachers from teaching in all-girls schools.The new regulations will take effect from the beginning of the new academic year.


Iranian reformist journalist, Isa Saharkhiz, has called on Iran's journalists to use new ways to counter state crackdown on media.
He told Radio Farda that journalists should use means as the Internet and satellite TV programs to get their message out.
Saharkhiz said:
"In a country where they restrain freedom of expression and don't respect the law, there is no need for us to work in the legal framework they impose on us.If they don't let us have newspapers and magazines, if they send us to prison under false pretexts and send us to court or to jail then we should use new technologies."
August 28th Saharkhiz was sentenced to four years in jail and barred from working as a journalist for five years for "publishing lies."
He spoke follow the closure last week of four publications in Iran, including a leading reformist daily, "Shargh."



According to Human Rights Watch, Iran is theworld leader in Juvenile Executions.
Although Wednesday 20th, the execution from Sina Parvand was stopped in literally the last minute, Iran has earned the dubious distinction as the world leader in executing child offenders.
Convention on the Rights of the Child and The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights prohibit the imposition of the death penalty for crimes committed before the age of 18. Iran has ratified both treaties.
Iran
Iran has executed more juvenile offenders in the last five years than any other nation.
Since 2001, Iran executed 14 juveniles, including at least one earlier this year and eight in 2005.
About 30 juvenile offenders are on death row in the country.
Five years ago, Iranian parliament has considered legislation that would amend the civil code to prohibit executions for crimes committed under the age of 18.


This year Iran uses an aeroplane to spot the crescent moon.

The crescent moon marks beginning of ramadan, the muslim fasting month.
Two years ago, a fatwa from supreme leader Ali Khamenei allowed the use of technical assistance to spot the moon, and many people started using telescopes.
The weather, light pollution and smog can make moon-spotting very difficult and last year some religious leaders in the city of Qom announced the end of Ramadan one day before the office of the supreme leader.


In Iran deathpenalty is in use. Also for child offenders.

Children are being hanged to death.
A child will be hanged to death.
Poster amnesty.nl

Iran: cause

In 60 caraccidents with fire involved, 124 people died.
Colonel Hadi Hashemi, head of Road Police Department, told ILNA that car manufacturers are obliged to increase the security coefficient of their products.
Majority of in Iran produced cars do not meet the basic security standards and their deficiencies result in accidents.
Police officers have been instructed to hold the managing directors of car manufacturers as responsible for the cause of these accidents.
photo www.roslynrescue.org



Amnesty international calls for urgent action for Abbas Lisani (or Leysani), who since June 3rd is in jail in Ardebil prison.
On 6 September 2006, the Revolutionary Court in Kaleybar sentenced Abbas Lisani
to one year’s imprisonment, for "spreading anti-government propaganda"
according to Article 500 of the Penal Code. According to the court verdict, the
basis for the charge includes his participation in the annual Babek Castle
demonstration in 2005; encouraging others to participate in this gathering;
reciting Azerbaijani poems and other material at the gathering; publishing and
distributing a "Turkish-language" calendar; sending messages abroad via the
internet; making calls to his supporters abroad; and intending to promote
Azerbaijani Turkic nationalism and independence.
Abbas Lisani will soon face a further trial before
the Revolutionary Court in Tabriz on charges related to his participation in
the Constitution Day commemoration in August 2005.
As a result from prison treatment he suffers from severe health problems.

Last wednesday, a boy who just reached his 18th birtday was
hanged for a murder he alledgedly committed as a child.
The boy was identified with his first name only, Vaheed.
Another boy, named Sina at the last moment, got suspension of his death sentence for two months . This boy also turned 18 recently.




In Iran deathpenalty is in use. Also for child offenders.

Children are being hanged to death.
A child will be hanged to death.
Poster amnesty.nl

Iran: strict

Emadeddin Baghi, human rights activist, head of the the Society for Defending Prisoners' Rights and editor of the banned newspaper Jumhuriyat,has identified 27 political prisoners including 18 members of the Kataebparty.
There are about 146 dissidents in custody, including 50 members of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan and five members of the Kurdish Komala party.
The iranian government does not recognise dissidents in its custody as political prisoners, therefore it is difficult to obtain correct figures.
In June Baghi wrote an appeal to Ayatollah Hashemi Shahroudi to revise and look into the death sentences issued to Ahwazis who the regime claims were "waging war on God".
In the meantime, hardliner Hamid Zanganeh majlis member for Ahwaz,lobbies for execution of all condemned ahwazi, for reason that failure to take a hard line to Ahwazi Arab dissent would be a sign of weakness.
In general, expectations are that executions either will take place this week or at Eid-ul-Fitr(around October 24th), the end of ramadan.


A military airplane with delegationmembers and reporters returning from president Ahmadinejads trip to Venezuela aboard, has been forced by turkish authorities to land on Istanbul Airport by lack of the necessary permission to fly in Turkish airspace.
Later on the plane could resume its flight to Tehran after obtaining the necessary permission.
The incident caused Iran to summon the turkish ambassador.



In Iran deathpenalty is in use. Also for childoffenders.

Children are being hanged to death.
A child will be hanged to death.
Poster amnesty.nl

Iran: critical, criticism

During a protest gathering of women at the judicial building of the court in Tehran, many women have been arrested.
The women gathered to protest against the iminent execution of
Kobra Rahmanpour, who has been accused to have murdered her mother-in-law in 2001, although she persists to have acted in self-defence.
Recently the iranian supreme court upheld the verdict of hanging until death.


In Kermanprovince, on the road from Ravar to Mashhad has a truck collided with a minibus, leaving 12 persons killed and 19 wounded.
The wounded, of which have been 10 critical injured, have been taken to the Ravar hospital.
First investigation showed reckless driving.

The magazine "Nameh", which was shut down last week has been shutdown because it published an anti-warpoem of famous iranian poet Simin Behbahani.The site adnkronosinternational wrote this after speaking with the magazines editor-in-chief.
In the poem war in general as well as the 1980-1988 war between Iran and Iraq is criticised.
The poem has been published some years ago in a book that never has been withdrawn from sale.

In Iran deathpenalty is in use. Also for childoffenders.

Children are being hanged to death.
A child will be hanged to death.
Poster amnesty.nl