Iran: era

The internet bandwith in Iran has quadrupled over last Iranian calendaryear.
According to statistics there are now 12,6 million internetusers.
On occasion of the beginning of Iranian New Year are, in three highly populated places in Isfahan, temporarily installed, three digital information kiosks, where people can find all kind of interesting information.
The project is aimed at promotion of IT-technology and when the project is successful, more and permanent kiosks will be opened in Isfahan.


In Iran there are childoffenders, still on death row.

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

Iran: extradited?

This month again are two Ahwazi refugees extradited by Syria to Iran.
Ali Bouzar who was awaiting for refugee status after fleeing Iran, was deported just 12 hours after his arrest.
Kamal Nawaseri, an UNHCR-registered refugee, is also believed to have been deported.

Five more people
are in custody in Syria, although they may also have been returned to Iran.
Salahuddin Sawari,
Ahmed Asadi,
Sadoun Sa'adi,
Jaber Obayat and
Afnan Azizi Bani Torouf, the son of journalist/writer Youssef Azizi Bani Torouf who sent an appeal to international human rights organisations and the Syrian government for the release of his son.He also sent a letter to Bashar al-Assad(Farsi), in which he asks for the release of his son.



In Iran there are childoffenders, still on death row.

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

Iran: decrease?

Iranian officials announced that the number of road accidents has been decreased in the early days of Iranian New Year by 15 percent compared to the same period last year.
Brigadier General Hossein Zolfaqari of the Iranian police forces said that the decrease has been remarkable in recent years and that over 90 percent of Iranian drivers have well followed the rules.
Iran counts over 30,000 deaths in roadaccidents each year.



In Iran there are childoffenders, still on death row.

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

Iran: frozen

UK will freeze all official bilateral talks with Iran, (apart from contacts over the captured marines) until the crisis is over.

This said Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett today.





Turkish security forces have during a security sweep targeting people smugglers, found the frozen bodies of seven people close to the country's eastern borders with Iran.

The nationalities of the bodies were not immediately known.
The bodies probably belonged to illegal immigrants.





In Iran there are childoffenders, still on death row.

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

Iran: body

Three, last month by the Jondallahgroupb in Sistan-e-Baluchestan province kidnapped Iranian policemen, have been freed by Pakistan policeofficers in Pakistan. A fourth man probably is dead.
The Pakistan police was tipped-off and found the abducted Iranians.
The men told that a fourth man was killed several days earlier, but they didn't know where the body was.


For the first time since their discovery the 'salt mummies' of Chehr Abad are exhibited. The exhibition is at the Rakhtshur Khaneh Museum in Iran's northwest province of Zanjan.
The mummies have been stored away for research since the first mummy was unearthed in 1993.
Up till now five 'saltmen'are found. Archeologists have revealed that two of the salt men lived in the Sassanid era (226 BC - 651 AD), while the other three may have lived some 500 years earlier.
The mummies were formed as a result of the naturally occurring but rare environmental conditions found in the salt mine.
Chehr Abad saltmine in Iran is one of the most archeologically rich sites, that more salt mummies could still be uncovered and that the archeological potential of this site is far from exhausted.

Photo PressTV


In Iran there are childoffenders, still on death row.

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

Iran: ongoing

Aso Salah, a Kurdish journalist with the weekly Didgah, was released on 18 March after paying bail of 85,000 euros. He was arrested on 8 March in Sanandaj, the capital of Kordestan province, because he covered a demonstration marking International Women’s Day.



The British sailors and marines detained by Iran are "fit and well" a senior Iranian foreign ministry official told Britain's envoy to Tehran at a meeting on Monday, a British Foreign Office official said.
The British ambassador is trying up till now to get details of where the detainees are being held.




In Iran there are childoffenders, still on death row.

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

Iran: impermissable

According to Iran the 15 British soldiers admitted being in Iranian territorial waters.
According to Farsnews the British were fully aware of their presence in the Iranian waters and the recordings by devices in the British vessels confirm the fact.
According to BBC, British requests for access to 15 Royal Navy personnel held by Iran have been denied and Iran also failed to say where the 15 were being held.

Photo PressTV



March 20, the Ahwaz shi'a cleric Sheikh Mohammed Kazem al-Khaqani held a speech(pdf) to a conference on Shi'ism and democracy in the Palace of Westminister in London.
Among other things he described jihadist suicide bombing and Iranian theocracy as impermissable in Shia Islam.
He is the son of Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Taher al-Khaqani, a leading Ahwazi cleric who was imprisoned immediately after the Islamic Revolution in Iran for advocating the separation of religion and state.
Sheikh al-Khaqani has made it his mission to continue his father's mission and has been invited to the UK by the British Ahwazi Friendship Society.


In Iran there are childoffenders, still on death row.

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

Iran: which rise or fall

Iran detained 15 British soldiers in the Shatt al-Arab waterway south of Basra in the Persian Gulf.
According to Iran, because of the fact that they illegally entered Iranian territorial waters.
According to the British the patrol had been in Iraqi territorial waters.
On behalf of Great Britain, Britain's ambassador to Iran has asked for their release, but the absence of many officials during Norouz holiday did not help.


The 15 soldiers are said to be transported to Tehran.
The oilprices saw a sudden rise and the stockmarket saw a fall.



In Iran there are childoffenders, still on death row.

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

Iran: family and children

Amnesty International calls for urgent action for the following persons in imminent danger of execution:
Sa'id Qanbar Zahi (also known as Saeed Kamberzai) (m, 17-year-old)

photo






Javad Naroui (m)
Ma'soud Nosrat Zahi (m)
Houshang Shahnavazi (m)
Yahya Sohrab Zahi (m)
Ali Reza Brahoui (m)
Abdalbek Kahra Zahi (also known as Abdalmalek) (m)



According to Amnesty are all members of the Baloch minority in Iran and may have been arrested on account of their family ties with those suspected of having been involved in the bombing in Zahedan, Sistan-e-Baluchestan province.
At least five of them made "confessions" on Iranian state television of a number of crimes which allegedly took place in Sistan-Baluchistan, including attacks and carjackings.

The attacks are said to be committed by Jondallah, or the Iranian Peoples' Resistance Movement.
A group reportedly seeks to defend the rights of the Baluchi people, but uses violent means, such as murder, hostagetaking and bombings.
Amnesty International condemns unequivocally the killing of hostages and urges Jondallah to desist from this or similar practices immediately.




On this site are all 27 minors on death-row in Iran.


In Iran there are childoffenders, still on death row.

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

Iran: suspicion

Iranian police has detained the head of French oil group Total for questioning over suspected corruption by the multinational giant to win a gas contract in Iran,
This is the second time chief executive Christophe de Margerie is targeted over dealings in the Middle East, but the company insists that its handling of the Iranian contract had been entirely legal.
A Total spokesman said that Margerie and two other current executives had been called in for questioning over a gas contract signed in Iran in 1997.
The spokesman named the other two as finance director Robert Castaigne and the head of gas activities Philippe Boisseau.


In Iran there are childoffenders, still on death row.

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

Iran: focus

Nearly 400,000 college graduates are jobless in Iran.
Morteza Parhizgar, head of University Graduates Employment Assistances Organization, told ISNA that although the average official unemployment rate in Iran is 12%, the unofficial jobless rate among university graduates has reached as high as 19%.



At the excavations in Bolaghi Gorge, Fars province, French and Iranian archeologists discovered more than five pair of eyes for statues dating back to the Achaemenid era (550-330 BC).
It is still unclear how and where the eyes, all made from different material, were used at the statues. The archeologists hope to clarify whether these eyes were implemented in stone statues, wooden statues or reliefs, before the official end of the excavations(March 21).
Bolaghi Gorge is situated in the area which will be flooded by the Sivand Dam.
hundreds of historical relics unearthed so far will be destroyed.



Photos CHN news


In Iran there are childoffenders, still on death row.

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

Iran: old-new

Tomorrow, March 21 Dutch time hr0107, worldtimetable here, the Iranian newyear starts: Norooz.
JTWnetwork has a site (Dutch) where you can find what Norooz is all about, Farsinet also has a site (English).

Coming Iranian year is 1386.






The two wives and other relatives of former Iranian Deputy-Minister of Defense Ali Reza Asghari have asked information from the Turkish ambassador over his whereabouts, and they said Turkey is responsible for his kidnapping.
Turkey denies these allegations as being speculations.
Last week Washington Post and Sunday Times reported Asghari has left his country for the West.
. Here it is said in the last paragraph of the article
and having been assured his family was safe,



The ban on conservative website Baztab has been lifted.
The site had published articles critical of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, his economical politics and the holocaustconference. But the site also has a record of being equally critical of Iran's reformists.



In Iran there are childoffenders, still on death row.

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

Iran: contacts

UPDATE


Shadi Sadr and Mahmoubeh Abbasgollizadeh have been released.
Their families had to pay huge amounts of bail (Euro200.000).





Shahram Jazayeri has been arrested by Interpol in a not specified country near the Persian Gulf.
February 20, the for multiple corruption and fraud convicted criminal escaped during transport.
He has been returned to Tehran prison.



Nasser Zarafshan, a Iranian humanrights defender and lawyer who represented families of political activists murdered by personnel of the Ministry of Intelligence, has been released from prison after serving a five-year term.
In 2002 Zarafshan was sentenced to prison and lashes on charges of "disseminating state secrets" and "possession of firearm and alcohol."
Humanrights organizations and many activists in Iran and groups outside Iran condemned his arrest and imprisonment and had called for the unconditional release of Zarafshan.
To Radio Farda he told that he has the same stand and position he had before and not only his, but public opinion, people, and society were aware that the whole issue was fabricated.



Kurdish activist Hossein Forohideh has been sentenced to death by the Revolutionary Court in Oroumiej. Four months ago he was arrested and since then there has not been any contact until last week March 14, when his mother was allowed to visit him.
Prisonauthorities announced that he was due to be executed.
The same day the verdict was published and it said he was to be executed March 16.
In an update it said that the execution seems to be postponed.
The reason for his arrest is his communications with 'Anti-Regime Political Organizations' outside of Iran.



In Iran there are childoffenders, still on death row.

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

Iran: unclear

Political activists along with social and cultural figures in an open letter expressed support for the teachers’ demands.
In this letter they're backing the legitimate demands from the teachers “It is your right to protest against low wages, rising inflation, lack of job security and lack of access to healthcare...it all being unjust.“
Amnesty International calls Iran to release all arrested teachers.
Many have been released but everal teachers’ leaders continue to be detained, including AliAkbar Baghani, Secretary General of the Teacher’s Union; Mahmoud Beheshti Langaroudi, the union’s spokesperson; and Alireza Hashemi, Secretary General of the Teacher’s Organization.
Amnesty International has received the names of eighteen others arrested on 14 March: it is not clear if they are still detained.


The offices of two Iranian NGOs, Raahi legal center and Nongovernmental Organizations Training Center, were shut down by Tehran’s Revolutionary Court’s agents Thursday evening.
Both NGO's are (co)founded by Shadi Sadr and Mahboubeh Abbasgholizadeh.
They were informed during the interrogations that they should prepare $200,000 for their bail as a condition of their release, Sadr and Abbasgholizadeh told their families on a phone call yesterday.
The bail should be in the form of a property worth $200,000 and the relatives of none of these women’s activists can afford it.
Farideh Gheyrat, Abbasgholizadeh and Sadr’s attorney said that she went to the judge Haddad’s office today to get a discount on the $200,000 bail for Abbasgholizadeh and Sadr. Judge Haddad, the case-judge, emphasized that no decision has been made to release them yet.


In Iran there are childoffenders, still on death row.

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

Iran: jump

At the annual Chaharshanbeh-Souri fest on the last Wednesday before Iranian newyear (March 21) are according to Fars Newsagency 1100 people injured and 1300 people arrested.
On this fest bonfires are built and people jump over them.
IRNA reported that Tehran Revolutionary and Public Prosecutor Saeed Mortazavi Wednesday said that about 300 hooligans had been obligated to participate in different sports activities such as football and volleyball in Saei Gymnasium.
He noted that 60 distributors of explosives were detained days before Chaharshanbeh-Souri.
According to him 129 tons of dangerous explosives and 210 kilos of acryl and syringe, packed in 500-gram boxes were confiscated by the police.



Kurdish activist Shahed Fathi arrested 50 days ago by plain clothes officials in his home, was found dead on Friday, his body reportedly bearing the signs of extensive torture.
A few days earlier, his parents had reportedly received a call from the local office of the intelligence ministry asking them to file a written request to meet their son in jail.
In the past two decades at least 100 politicians, clerics, intellectuals and regular citizens are believed to have been executed without trial.
Among them are writers Saiidi Sirjani, Mohammad Mokhtari and Mohammad Jaafar Pouyandeh; Christians Mehdi Dibaj, Tatavous Mikaelian and Hapek Hospian; tenor Hossein Sarshar; and politicians Kazem Sami, Dariush Forouhar, Parvaneh Forouhar, Siamak Sanjari and Khosrow Ghasghaii.



Zahra Kamalfar and her two children Anna, 17, en Davood, 12, Friday arrived in Vancouver, Canada, after living for more than nine months at Moscow Airport.

Canada agreed last week to accept Kamalfar and her two children after she was granted refugee status by the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.


In Iran there are childoffenders, still on death row.

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

Iran: youth

In Zahedan, Sistan-e-Baluchestan province are Friday two men hanged to death. They were convicted for drug smuggling.
Two days before a 17-year-old boy was hanged to death accused of being a militant with the Sunni separatist group Jondalla.






Amnesty International calls for Urgent Action for Reza Alinejad, 21-year-old who is at risk of imminent execution(PUBLIC AI Index: MDE 13/029/2007 ,12 March 2007).
In December 2002 at the age of 17, Reza Alinejad got in a fight with two men and stabbed one in selfdefence.
Although the other man and a witness confirmed that Reza Alinejad acted in selfdefence, the court sentenced him to death in october 2003.
This verdict was rejected by the Supreme Court in December 2004 and this court sent the case back to another lower court for investigation.
In June 2005 this court sentenced him to death again concluding that Reza Alinejad could
have fled the scene.
On 9 May 2006, the Supreme Court upheld the death sentence.
Reza Alinejad has been detained in Adelabad prison in Shiraz since his arrest.


In Iran there are childoffenders, still on death row.

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

Iran: moderate number

Reporters without Borders called upon the release of four detained journalists in Iranian Kurdistan.



Kia Jahani arrested without any reason being given on 24 February in Marivan
Aso Salah journalist from the weekly Didgagh, was arrested March 8 in Sanandaj, Kurdistan province, while covering an authorised demonstration marking International Women’s Day.
Adnan Hassanpour, journalist from the weekly Asou was arrested outside his home on 25 January and since then not being able to receive visits from his family or lawyer.
Kaveh Javanmard,, journalist from the weekly Karfto, arrested on December 18, 2006 from whom nothing has been heard since that day.
The Press Authorisation and Surveillance Commission suspended the Kurdish-language weekly Payam Kurdistan on 11 March for “spreading separatist ideas” after its latest issue included a map of Greater Kurdistan.


More then 200 kurdish terrorists were arrested in Iran, the Iranian newspaper Jomhouri Islami reported.
Police Chief Hasan Keremi said that ninety percent of those arrested are PKK members. The rest are Iranians and Syrians,



In Iran there are childoffenders, still on death row.

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