Iran: continued (persecution)

Amnesty International published a 57 page report about the abuse against the human rights of the Kurdish minority in Iran.
Among other things this report states that Kurdish regions have been economically neglected,
Kurds were forcibly evicted and their houses were destroyed.
Baby's with certain Kurdish names are banned from registration, and the using of Kurdish language in schools is often thwarted.
Kurdish human rights activists and journalists are harrassed and arrested for arbitrary reasons, people are imprisoned for their peaceful expression of opinion.
Others suffer torture, unfair trials and the death penalty.
This report is published by Amnesty to draw attention to the ongoing repression of Kurds in Iran.
Amnesty calls upon the Iranian government to take concrete measures to end the discrimination and associated human rights violations.
Iran has not permitted Amnesty International access to Iran to investigate human rights for more than 28 years.
Some recent cases:
Farzad Kamangar, Ali Heydariyan and Farhad Vakili,are all three sentenced to death.
Mohammad Sadiq Kabudvand is sentenced to 11 years of prison.
Hana Abdi is sentenced to five years of prison.


The free-lance journalist Saman Rasoulpour is arrested in his home, two days after some 200 Kurds staged a peaceful demonstration in Mahabad to demand the overturning of the death sentences against Farzad Kamangar, Ali Heydariyan and Farhad Vakili.
Reporters without Borders calls upon authorities to explain why they arrested Rasoulpour and demand his immediate release.



According to National Council of Resistance of Iran(NCRI) have July 26 plain clothes agents of the Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) raided a Christian homechurch in Malak near Isfahan.
They arrested some worshippers, eight men, six women and two children and transferred them to an unknown location.
There were also two elderly people , believed to be in their sixties, who later were admitted to the ICU of Shariatyhospital in Isfahan.
The house was also searched for forbidden Christian books and literature.


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: orders

In the prison of Zahedan, Sistan-e-Baluchestan province, is July 29 a man hanged . IRNA reported that the man was convicted for drugstrafficking, but did not identify him by name.
Fars newsagency reported that July 29, 2 men are hanged in the prison of the city of Isfahan.
Yaser K (22) and Mahmood (33) were convicted for murder.
According to ADNkronos are July 29, three men were hanged in Qom.


Saeed Jazi (Jazee) is released from prison, July 29.
He was sentenced to death for a murder he alledgedly committed when he was 16 years-old.
Saeed Jazi was scheduled to be executed in June and later in July, but both times his sentence was postponed after order from the head of the Iranian judiciary, Hashemi Shahroudi.
He spent five years in jail.
The victims parents forgave him and he has been released.


The daily Etemad reported that according to new orders for retirement, based on a new set of changes by Tehran University authorities, professors over 70 must retire, but professors between the ages of 65 and 70 can continue teaching if granted permission by the university.
At the University of Tehran some below this age are forced to retire or put on a wait-list for a teaching-position.
The professors Iraj Goldozian (criminal law), Amir-Naser Katozian (civil rights), Dr. Mahmood Erfani (commerce law), and Abulghasem Gorji (Islamic law) were forced to retire. Furthermore, Mohammad Ashori (criminal justice), Dr. Jamshid Momtaz (international law), Dr. Azatullah Iraqi (labor law) and Dr. Nejad-Ali Almasi (international law) did not receive official retirement orders but have had their teaching positions wait-listed for the next term..



Ali Reza Jahnashahi, an Iranian cleric, who protested walking from the southern Iranian city, Sirjan to Tehran, is two weeks ago arrested, shortly after he started.
The cleric protested against corrupt land appropriation in Sirjan, and complained the government was not doing enough to stop it.
Several conservative Iranian and pro-Islamic Republic bloggers have declared their support for his protest and have called on authorities to release him.
According to reports he was arrested because his actions are against the statute of clerics.
Through Global Voices Online one finds links to mostly Persian-language blogs, who write about the protest.

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: questionable success

July 24 are in the prison of Torbat-e-jaam, Khorasan province, 7 people hanged.
Daily Khorasan reported that they all were sentenced for drugstrafficking.
Noone was identified by name.



The Iranian human rights group Defenders of Human Rights Centre from Shirin Ebadi has protested at the massexecution from 29 people who were hanged on Sunday and doubt if the convicts had been given a fair trial.
Authorities claim capital punishment is an effective deterrent that is used only after an exhaustive judicial process.
As part of a crackdown to improve security in society, Iran has stepped up its use of the death penalty.
But the human rights group dismissed that justification, and says that the use of capital punishment will have no effect in cutting crime and will rather increase crime.


55% females have successfully toppassed Iranian University Entrance Exam for the academic year 2008-2009.
Out of 36 topqualifiers in five fields of mathematics, natural sciences, humanities, arts, and foreign languages, were 20 females.
Seven out of 10 top exam passers in mathematics were male and 3 were female.
In humanities, the results were vice versa.
The nationwide exam was held on July 26-28, 2008.



Iranian border security guards arrested Sunday 30 illegal immigrants on the border with Pakistan.
According the police, the illegal immigrants crossed the border near Taftan and wanted to proceed to some European countries.



The police seized the past two days in East-Iran 510 kg of hashish, 91 kg of heroin and more than 580 kg of opium.
Five smugglers have been detained in connection with the cases.
The deputy coordinator of the Rasul-e Akram (Law Enforcement Police) Operational Base,said in an interview that following intense intelligence and operational measures, the law enforcement squads from Abuzar Commando regiment 4 of Kerman province raided the convoy in a cohesive operation.
The traffickers smuggled the drugs into Iran via the country's eastern borders with Afghanistan.
During a separate operation, they also managed to identify the hideout of three well-known armed bandits and insurgents. They arrested them, and seized a number of weapons and munition.
Rasul-e Akram Operational Base is the Law Enforcement Police headquarters in southeastern Iran with five bases covering provinces of Sistan-e-Baluchestan, Kerman, South Khorassan, and parts of Hormozgan.


Afghan border guards say that they seized 50kg drugs in the Kohsan District of Herat Province.
The cargo was seized near one of the border posts in the district.
Two policemen from the post have also been arrested for alleged collusion with the smugglers



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: may or may not

The head of the intelligence center for the judiciary in Iran rejects reports that the execution of criminals continues to be carried out publicly.
The reports of continued public executions came after six criminals were executed in public in the city of Sabzevar.
He reminded reporters of the order from Iran's judiciary chief, Ayatollah Seyyed Mahmoud Hashemi-Shahroudi, that public executions are halted unless they had his direct approval.



Iranian athletes participating in the 2008 Olympic Games in China are banned from holding pressconferences with foreign media and from exposing any tattoos on their bodies. In Iran visible showing of tattoos is considered immoral.
These are part of new rules of conduct for Iranian athletes, officials and supporters.
It was not said which sanctions there are.



The concert from Chris De Burgh together with Iranian band Arian, is scheduled to be held in the last week of November at Azadi Indoor Stadium in Tehran. The stadium has 12,000 seats.
The head of Taraneh Sharqi Cultural and Artistic Company says that Chris De Burgh will give 8 solo performances in 40 minutes and will join the Iranian band for another 30 minutes.
(Photo Reuters)
In March visited Chris De Burgh Iran. He is the first Western musician to perform in Iran since 1979.


The head of Iran's national broadcaster IRIB, Ezzatollah Zarghami says that airing the film
"Assassination of Pharaoh", a documentary about the assassination of Egyptian president Anwar Sadat, did not harm relations between Tehran and Cairo.
Following the airing Egyptian authorities last week closed down operations at the Cairo branch of the TV channel, Al-Alam.
Zarghami says that the Iranian Foreign Ministry is following up the issue and that the closure of Al-Alam office will be resolved soon.


President Ahmadinejad will introduce his candidates for three ministerial posts on the interior, economy, and roads and transportation ministries to the parliament this week.
According to the Iranian constitution, a caretaker minister can only serve for three months, after which the president has to introduce a new minister to parliament.
Including the latest three, since the beginning of his presidency, president Ahmadinejad has made nine changes in the cabinet.
This means that he can only replace two more ministers till the end of his term without having to introduce his entire cabinet of ministers to the parliament for a fresh vote of confidence.


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:raise

This morning are in Evinprison in Tehran 29 people hanged.
The website of the Statetelevision IRIB said that they all were sentenced for murder, rape, armed robbery and drug trafficking.



Saturday an earthquake with a magnitude of 4 on the Richter scale happened in the city of Ashkanan in Fars province.
The earthquake was at 10.54 GMT.
There has been no report of casualties or damages.



The tv-channel Al-Arabiya reported that the group of sunni rebels had shot two more policeagents.
The channel reported it received a telephone call from a Jundullah (Soldiers of God) spokesman that two more hostages were shot.
Jundullah had said that they would shoot 2 hostages each week until their demands were met.
June 12 were 16 borderguards kidnapped by the group in Sistan-e-Baluchestan province.


Iran will not raise interest rates.
Today president Ahmadinejad submitted an action plan that after signing is implemented.
One of the requirements for interest rates for certain contracts are to be fixed at 12 percent until the end of the current Iranian year.
According to the governor of the Central Bank of Iran was a draft of this plan been initially presented in mid-April but was revised due to disagreements within the government.
With this plan, lending rates for special priority projects directed at increasing employment will be set to an even lower rate of 10 percent.
The two-percentage-point difference will be covered for by the government.
International Monetary Fund (IMF) had asked Iran last week to raise interest and take further policy measures to contain inflation.



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: vision

The newspaper Aftab reports that Iran plans to execute by hanging
30 people July 27.
This will be the largest mass execution in Iran in recent years.
Aftab writes that the people are convicted of murders, drug-trafficking, illicit sexual relationships and other grave crimes.
The prosecutor's office of Tehran said that the verdicts have been approved by high judicial authorities.
The office also said that 20 of the convicted are drugstraffickers and that the other 10, were also convicted of "disturbing public security and disorder, beating up people, repeated robberies, having illegal relationships and showing up drunk in public."



The European Committee has lifted the air ban for Mahan Air.
The ban to fly European skies was imposed on September 11, 2007.
Reza Ja’farzadeh, the spokesman of Iran’s Civil Aviation Organization (CAO) says that the company’s technical and operational situation and its organizational structure is completely overhauled.
Once Mahan Air receives the permit from CAO, the company is capable of having flights to 25 EU countries.




Vedud Asadi, former chairperson of the Islamic Council at Ardebil Independent University, is July 22 arrested at his house in Rasht.
Security officers searched his home during his arrest.
He was arrested two weeks after he celebrated his wedding in ethnic Azeri-style.
Asadi is known as promotor of the cultural and language rights of Iran’s Azeri minority.
Why Asadi, who had been arrested before in recent years, was arrested is not known, but his sister says that putting the image of the Azerbaijan’s flag on the wedding cake must have triggered Iranian authorities.



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: permit

July 23 are two men hanged in the prison of the city of Shiraz.
The newspaper Khabar Jonub reports that one man, H.A. who is sentenced for kidnapping and murder of a younger boy in the city of Marvdasht, was probably a minor(novajan).
Further details are not available.
The other man (22), was sentenced for murder.


The Egyptian police has closed down the bureau of satellite tv network Al-Alam in Cairo.
The head of the Cairo bureau says that the closure is because the network had no licence to operate in Egypt.
According to Press-TV Hassan Abedini, Al-Alam newsroom Chief, told Fars newsagency that there are still talks with Egyptian media and security officials to return to the normal activity of the network.



Iran has banned the evening edition of the newspaper Hamshahri. The reason was that the newspaper published news aimed at damaging the economy.
The newspaper is run by Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, a critic from president Ahmadinejad and a potential candidate for the presidential election of 2009.


The managing director of Interior Ministry's Bureau for Aliens and Foreign Immigrants Affairs (BAFIA), Seyed Taqi Qaemi said Tuesday that 12,5% of Afghan population is official living in Iran as refugees.
2,000,640 Afghan refugees settled in Iran in 1983.
Most of them live in urban areas, with less than 3.3 percent living in camps.
All these people have access to education and health care.
In 1990 101,820 Afghan children were educated at Iranian schools, in 2008 some 199,346 Afghan children were educated.
The UNHCR bureau in Iran had a budget of $12.8 million in 2007.
According to Qaemi this is far from sufficient.
Afghan refugees cost Iran $6 million per day.



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: waiting

Four times heavyweight weightlifting champion Hossein Rezazadeh ended his career for medical reasons.
Doctors have prohibited him from taking part in any sports activity.
Last year he was involved in a caraccident where he suffered a knee-injury.
Rezazadeh, also named the "Iranian Hercules" has won gold at the Olympics in Sidney and Athens.
He was expected to win his third Olympic gold medal in Beijing.


Iran will resume its wheatimports next month.
Four years ago Iran reached self-sufficiency in producing wheat.
Last year Iran even started exporting wheat to Iraq and Oman, but due to a devastating drought, this year there was a heavy fall in grain production.
Officials suggest that the country will have to import 5 to 6 million tons of wheat by the end of the Iranian year (March 20, 2009) to prevent supply shortages. .



Behrooz Javid-Tehrani , a political prisoner who is imprisoned for four years in 2005 for charges of membership in the group Iran Democratic Front, is in another case in appeal convicted to 3 years in prison for having connections to Mojahedin-e Khalgh.
He learned of the sentence through an order submitted to him at Raja’i prison in Karaj.
In total he is sentenced to seven years in prison.



Press-TV reports that the Egyptian office of the satellite channel Alalam in the Egyptian capital of Cairo not has been closed by the authorities.
Earlier, AFP had said that securityofficers had closed down the Cairo bureau to protest against an Iranian film about the former Egyptian President, Anwar Sadat.
Alalam has declared on its website that it has not been involved in producing the documentary The Assassination of a Pharaoh.
Diplomatic ties between Iran and Egypt severed after the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran but in recent years, both sides showed their willingness to improve relations.


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: wait

According to the newspaper Kargozaran, the execution of the childoffenders Mohammad Fadaei en Javad Shojaee, which was set for July 23, is postponed again.
It is not known when they will be executed.
The newspaper says it is still possible that they could be executed within weeks.


Human Rights Watch calls upon Iran to release the two last month arrested HIV/Aids physicians Arash Alaei en Kamyar Alaei immediately or charge them.
The Alaei brothers were arrested June 22 and since then the authorities have not yet announced why the brothers were detained, they have refused to disclose information about where the Alaei brothers are being held and have not provided them access to counsel.


Mohsen Namvar, the Iranian christian who was detained and tortured for a month in Sepah, has been fled with his wife and son to Turkey after his release.
He went to United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Ankara to apply for status as an asylum-seeker.
The procedure to establish whether he and his family can get refugeestatus, can take three or four years.
Currently there are 15,000 applications for refugee or asylum status now in process at the Ankara office.



Iran has discovered an oilfield with a capacity of 500 million barrels.
This announced the Iranian oilminister.
The new oil field, Arvand, is located in the city of Abadan in Khuzestan province.
Earlier this month, two new oil fields were discovered.


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: sentence

The website of the state broadcaster says that in the prison of the city Bushehr 3 men are hanged.
They were convicted for a rape, which only was referred to as "Chah Kootah Forest".



According to the Guardian are 9 women and one man sentenced to death by stoning after being convicted for adultery.
Lawyers say that these senteces are a resurgence of hardline Islamic fundamentalism.
Despite a moratorium the sentences have been imposed in courts across the country.
The lawyers say most of the nine have been victims of violence and are mostly illiterate.
Many of the sentences were handed down after hearings held in private without the presence of witnesses and defence lawyers.
One woman, Kobra Najar, an etnic Kurd, is condemned after her husband forced her to work as an prostitute.
Another defendant Shamame Qorbani, was raped but the allegation was not investigated.
Details of the sentences were revealed Sunday by Iranian lawyers in Tehran, as they attempted to generate international support for a campaign to force Iran's government to abolish stoning.



The newspaper Kargozaran reported that
Safar Ali (35), Ali (39) en Rahmatollah (40) are sentenced to 74 lashes and amputation of four fingers of the right hand and three years in prison.
All three are convicted for robbery.



The deputy bureau chief of AFP in Tehran, Stuart Williams, has been told to leave Iran within a few days.
A reason was not given.
Williams has been in the country for two years,and held a renewable resident's permit which was valid until August 28.
(Photo AFP-logo)


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