Iran: worth

The Iranian police confiscated 67 ancient artifacts from one of the bus passengers traveling between Shiraz and Ahvaz.
Among those were nine coins dating back to the Seleucids era, square stone buttons, 41 coins, a metal ring, and two spearheads.
The authenticity of the artifacts was established by Behbahan experts..


Khalil Bahramian, one of the lawyers defending jailed Iranian journalists Adnan Hassanpour and Hiwa Boutimar who are condemned to death, has been arrested on the airport in Tehran.
He was on his way to Italy to the city of Siena on Friday to attend the prize-ceremony for the City of Siena - ISF 2007 freedom of the press award which Hassanpour and Boutimar have won.

Also Leyli Hassanpour, sister of Adnan and Hadi Boutimar, brother of Hiwa, will attend Friday's ceremony.


According to newsagency Norouz the word "women" is banned from state broadcasting in Iran.
In programmes broadcast throughout the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against women last Sunday, Iranian state TV used the world family instead.
In recent weeks, Iran's Centre for the Participation of Women changed its name to the Centre for Family Matters.


Sara Loghmani wrote on the site we-change.org a long article which among other things deals with a Keyhan newspaper article, which falsely accuses the campaign of receiving 15 million euros from the government of Netherlands.



Article in English
Article in Farsi


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: double-word value

Iran ordered a new trial over the killing of Iranian-Canadian photographer Zahra Kazemi who died 4 years ago.
She died under suspicious circumstances in Evinprison in Tehran.
The Iranian supreme court found while reviewing an appeal that the original court was not competent to deal with the case.
Kazemi was violently beaten in prison, after her arrest in 2003, but the judiciary initially claimed she died of a stroke.
Between her arrest and her admission to hospital where she died of a brain haemorrhage, Kazemi was interrogated by rival power centres -- judicial prosecutors, the police and then the intelligence ministry.




Thursday IRNA reported that Iran planned to launch a crackdown on rap music, complaining that the words used by rap artists were "obscene".
An official for evaluation of music at the Culture and Islamic Guidance Ministry, said that there is nothing wrong with this type of music in itself, but due to the use of obscene words by its singers this music has been categorised as illegal.
Producing albums and holding concerts is illegal in Iran, but rap albums are widely available on the black markets.
Rap music has become increasingly popular amongst young urban males.


Iranian blogger Reza Valizadeh is arrested after he published details about the reported use of bomb-sniffing dogs in President Mahmud Ahmadinejad's security detail.
He wrote(farsi) in his blog that Ahmadinejad's security staff purchased four dogs in Germany for about $150,000.
He wrote that the dogs were used to sniff out possible explosives on November 14, before Ahmadinejad's appearance at an annual press exhibition. The sweep left exhibition visitors standing outside the venue for several hours.
He also said the price of the dogs and their appearance in public evoked surprise and criticism.
Some strict Shi'ite interpretations of the Koran regard dogs as unclean, and dog ownership is controversial in Shi'a-dominated Iran.
According to the website www.gooya.com he was the object of a complaint from the president's office. After his arrest his whereabouts are unknown.


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: goal

Monday is a man in prison hanged in the city of Isfahan.
The daily Iran reported that the man Ahmad was accused for smuggling 71 kilos (156 pounds) of opium.



According to Fars newsagency Tuesday students gathered in front of the Judiciary, upon invitation of the Student Basij of the University of Science and Technology, to protest the exoneration of former nuclear negotiator Hossein Mousavian.



Jomhoriy Eslami reported that 200 journalists issued a statement in which they criticize the governments conduct towards journalism and journalists in general, and call upon the government to respect the media.



According to IRNA the Dutch ambassador in Iran said that he hopes that favorable conditions would be provided for his country to invest in Iran's oil and gas sector.
At a meeting with the chairman of the Iran Chamber of Commerce he said that big companies in Holland with modern technology are engaged in oil and gas sector and that Iran is an energy rich country with which they're eager to cooperate in energy projects.


The OneMillionSignatures Campaign made a campaignmovie about the goals of the campaign.
Texts are by Sara Loghmani and Sussan Tahmasebi,
photo's by Rahele Asgarizadeh and Arash Ashoorinia,
and Flash by Pouya.

The film is here.


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: cause and effect

A F-4 fighterjet of the Iranian airforce has crashed in the Sea of Oman .
The accident occurred Monday off coast near the city of Konarak, Sistan-e-Baluchistan province.
The two crewmembers were killed in the accident.The cause of the accident is still unknown.
The plane crashed while on a maneuver to mark the 27th anniversary of the Basij (mobilization) Week.
The Minister of Defense of Iran announced on Tuesday that Iran has built a new long-range missile named "Ashura" with a range of 2,000 kilometers, (1,240 miles).



Former Iranian nuclear negotiator Hossein Mousavian has been found innocent of charges relating to espionage and possession of classified documents.
The court, however, found him guilty on one count of 'propagating against the state'.
Earlier this month Iran's Intelligence Minister has said that from the viewpoint of the intelligence ministry, these charges have been proved.
Also President Ahmadinejad has said earlier that the judge verifying Mousavian's case was heavily pressured by some of his political opponents to exonerate the spy and dismiss the case.


The weekly magazine 40- Cheraq reported that Iran might for the first time since the islamic revolution approve a concert of a Western pop artist in Tehran.
Chris de Burgh and the Iranian band Arian recorded the song A Melody for Peace.
The music department of the Culture Ministry, has principally approved.


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: bail

November 22 is Sohrab Razzaghi, Director of Iranian Civil Society Organizations Training and Research Center (ICTRC) (Koneshgaran Davtalab), who was arrested October 24, released against bail.




In a statement, (farsi), more then 1000 Equal Rights Defenders have protested against the imprisonment of Maryam Hosseinkhah.
She was arrested on charges of among other things her activities for the OneMillionSignatures Campaign and her activities for the websites “Change for Equality” and “Zanestan".
A bail is set for her release from $ 110,000. She is detained in Evinprison, ward 3 and there she has written an article in which she describes the circumstances which brought her and other women in jail.
Her attorney is Shirin Ebadi.



Iran detained 11 members of the Kurdish Party of Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK), the Iranian branch of PKK.
The group is accused of several bomb attacks and had attacked a police station in Sanandaj, the capital of Kurdistan Province.



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: develop

According to ISNA the attorney for Amir-Kabir University’s detained students Ehsan Mansouri, Majid Tavakoli and Ahmad Qassaban said that his clients will stand trial at the Qoddousi Judicial Complex at November 27 on charges of "insulting sacred values, the infallible Imams and sources of emulation".



Newspaper Jomhouriy Eslami writes that unnamed sources in Ardabil said that the visit of president Ahmadinejad to the province Ardabil led to dissatisfaction among the people of this province.
The cause of the dissatisfaction are the costs of this visit.



Iranian software developers have created a highly graphical Persian instant messaging program, named TD-messenger.
According to the CEO of Tehran Data Company the software is extremely user-friendly and is created with the newest programming techniques.
The program can be installed on any operating system.
Photo Press-TV


The Iranian navy will according to Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari Wednesday introduce a submarine manufactured in Iran.
He did not give further details.
He also said that a destroyer named Jamaran is being manufactured in Iran that would be far more powerful than the similar models built prior to the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
The Iranian Navy has been successfully restoring weaponry and equipment that had been damaged during the Iran-Iraq war.
The navy will hold a maneuver in the Sea of Oman and the Strait of Hormuz in February.
He said that Iran is ready to carry out all necessary operations to safeguard national interests.


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: voices

In the city of Zahedan, Sistan-e-Baluchestan province, are Saturday two drugstraffickers hanged.
IRNA reported that Shamseddin Darvakh Gorgich and Mahmoud Shah Pashtoon are executed in prison.


October 13 died 27-year-old Zahra Bani Yaghoub in police custody.
Earlier that day she was arrested by Iran's morality police while walking with her fiance in a Hamadan city park.
The next day she was dead, according to the police she committed suicide by hanging herself, but according to her parents they had no reason to believe that their daughter would take her own life.
The family says Bani Yaghoub's body was bruised and that there was blood in her nose and in her ears.
In the meantime this case is known all over the country.
The Iranian Alumni Association of Majlis Representatives,which brings together more than 400 former Iranian parliamentarians, urged Ayatollah Hashemi Shahrudi to fully investigate the case in order to answer all outstanding questions.
Her family and her attorney have submitted a complaint against Hamedan’s Basiji brigade, who arrested her.
A not confirmed report indicates that a number of Revolutionary Guards commanders met last week with the special representative of the Supreme Leader, and asked him to investigate this case.
According to the same report Bani Yaghoub’s father is a clerk at a Revolutionary Guard facility, and this has caused Revolutionary Guards commanders to be upset with the death of one of their colleague’s daughters.
Photo Roozonline


Iranian Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi has called for the creation of a broad-based "National Peace Council" to give voice to Iranians who want to halt the Iranian-American conflict.
Ebadi this week invited all Iranians to participate in the creation of the national body, saying the initiative emerged from a group of activist lawyers called the Center of Human Rights Defenders,


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: implementation

Arash Bahamani, the editor of the daily Gylan Emroz, and two of his reporters, Babak Mehdizadeh and Sied Kohzad Esmaili, were convicted by a court in Rashat, in the northern province of Gilan, on 12 November. They are respectively sentenced to 16 and 4 months in prison.
They are convicted on various charges including insulting an imam.They have decided to appeal.
The three journalists spent several days custody in February after criticising President Ahmadinejad’s policy during a visit he made to the province.
Gylan Emroz was one of the first Iranian newspapers to reveal the existence of bird flu cases in the country.
Abolfazl Abedini Nasr of the weekly Bahar Khozestan is arrested 1r November in Ahwaz city. It is not known where he is being held.
Adnan Hasanpour began a hunger strike in protest against his death sentence.


The newspaper Etemad Melli says that the Iranian central bank has warned that rising money supply growth will further push up inflation.Last fiscal year, the inflation rate was 8.9 percent and it has increased to 15.8 percent.
In early November, the new governor of Iran's central bank warned over money supply growth urging measures to prevent a further rise in inflation.
The government's economic policies have been criticised for stoking inflation by ploughing windfall revenues from high oil prices into local infrastructure projects promised on provincial visits.
The government says that it is merely fulfilling Ahmadinejad's election promises of making ordinary people feel the benefits of oil wealth and that it has inflation under control.


The Iranian government is implementing a new plan to privatize state institutions as a prevention against monopolization.
The state seeks private partners to invest in and expand the mining sector.
Iran is the biggest zinc and lead bullion producer in the Middle East.
The annual zinc bullion production in Iran amounts to 150,000 tons, which is projected to escalate to five million tons in 18 years.


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: disturbing public opinion

This morning at 7.14 local time has an earthquake measuring 5.1 on the Richter scale has shaken the suburbs of Bandar-e Lengeh, province of Hormozgan.
Up till now no damage was reported.
This is the 2nd time this week, Iran is struck by a quake with a strenght of more then 5.0.


Lawyer Mostafa Daneshju is detained in Karaj on November 20, but the reason for his arrest has not been made clear, nor is it known where Daneshju is being held.
A collegue told that Daneshju had previously been sentenced to a prison term and lashes on charges of spreading lies and insulting officials.
He reportedly appealed against the sentence.
Daneshju also has been active in defending the rights of the Gonabadi order of dervishes and represented the case of a Sufi who had been attacked in Lorestan Province.



According to Jomhouriy Eslami has police general Ahmad Rouzbehani, head of the "Social Security Plan", told at a pressconference, that since the start of this plan, 4,800 hooligans have been detained, of which 30 have been sentenced to death.
He emphasized that the "Social Security Plan" will by no means be stopped, and with the people’s help and cooperation, those not yet detained will have been identified and will be arrested.

Newspaper Mehrnews reported that former MP Ahmad Shirzad will stand trial on Tuesday, December 4, on charges of ‘spreading lies with the intent to disturb public opinion, propaganda against the Islamic system, insulting slandering officials, etc.’.
Shirzad was previously sentenced to one-year in jail and fined Rls.500,000 in absentia by the court, but Shirzad’s attorney Abdulfattah Soltani had appealed his client’s case.


A conservative newspaper which normally is fully supportive of president Ahmadinejad, has a written editorial in which he is accused of behaving immorally towards his political rivals.
The criticism came a recent speech by Mr Ahmadinejad when he described people opposed to his nuclear programme as traitors and accused some senior former nuclear negotiators of spying for foreigners.
The newspaper wrote that he was using this tactic to discredit his political rivals prior to the parliamentary elections due early next 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: doubt

Maryam Hosseikhah, women's rights activist and member of the One Million Signatures Campaign Against Discriminatory Laws, was detained on November 18, on charge of undermining national security.
She is transferred to Tehran's Evin prison.
Authorities had told her one day earlier that she was being charged with "acting against Iran's national security" and publishing false information on the Women's Cultural Center and the One Million Signatures Campaign websites.


Turkey and Iran officials at the common border between the two countries have been cooperating to find seven Turkish citizens kidnapped earlier this month.
Since the incident occurred at the Iranian border, the Turkish Interior Minister has handed a diplomatic note to Iran.
There are doubts whether the incident is PKK-related or a tribal fight.






Iranian car maker Iran Khodro is planning to make a complaint against Peugeot over technical problems with Peugeot cars it manufactures under licence.
Many Peugeot 405's caught fire spontaneously.
Peugeot said the Iranian manufacturer made unauthorised modifications which are to blame for the incidents.
The parts involved in the incidents are the parts which were modified.



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: developments

In Gonbad, Golestan province is a man hanged in public.
The man, only named A.A. 29 year was convicted for murder.




An earthquake with a magnitude of 5.1 jolted the city of Qal'e Tal, Khuzestan province, early Tuesdaymorning.
The tremor was felt in the provincial capital Ahwaz and elsewhere.
Statemedia report some 20 children were hurt as they tried to run out of a school building.


Yesterday, the Iranian ambassador in The Netherlands told NOSTV that Abdullah al-Mansouri is in good health.
According to the ambassador al-Mansouri is imprisoned under suspection of involvement of bombattacks in Ahwaz/Khuzestan.
The ambassador says that proof of these accusations can be found on the internet.
He emphasized that the trial against al-Mansouri has started and that he has a lawyer, representing him.



Mehrnewsagency reported that Iran Minister of Justice,Gholam-Hossein Elham said that there are new developments in the case of Satoshi Nakamura.

He did not want to discuss this, saying that terrorists are unpredictable and therefore any information would harm the release process.





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