Iran: human and animals

Reports on the weblog of a journalist and human rightsactivist mention that January 29th in Rafsanjan a woman is hanged.
The woman, Masoumeh was convicted for killing her husband.



Global Voices Online writes that bloggers in Iran mobilize for animal rights.
Last year authorities started to "arrest"dogs, with the reason that they are impure in Islam. The arrestations stopped, but the mistreatment of animals in the Islamic Republic of Iran is still widespread.
Bloggers stand for animal rights, an initiative from Mino Saberi (fa) who in her post, directed to the director of Iranian National TV writes that she is a muslem too and that even the prophet taught kindness towards animals.
She also writes that tv-programs not only have to defend oppressed people in this or that country, but also has a responsibility towards nature, animals and the vegetable world.
The blogger Bidari writes that mistreatment of animals has become a part of Iranian culture little by little, like extinguishing cigarettes on cats' bodies, cutting the ears off stray dogs, and caring less and less about the birds whose numbers decline.
Instead of promoting friendship and kindness towards animals, they broadcast programs where the torturing and mistreatment of animals are shown as a normal act.
Sadaf-Farahani (fa) writes that the ill treatment of animals has its roots either in psychological problems or in a bad education.
Asalijon (fa) protests against the killing of stray dogs and their puppies.


Irannewsdaily writes that the daily Etemaad Melli reports that suicide is on the sharp rise.
The Ministry of Health mention Lorestan, Kohguiluyeh Boyer Ahmad, Hamedan, Kermanshah, Guilan and Ilam as provinces where many suicides occur and that Ilam province has registered the highest suicide rate in the country.
Iranians commit suicide for a number of social problems, mainly poverty and unemployment.


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: worries

President Ahmadinejad will become a candidate and run for a second term as president.
Wednesday told his media-advisor this to Reuters.
This was the first time that one of Ahmadinejads topadvisors confirms the president's decision to compete in the presidential elections.


Iran opposes the build of an underwater oilpipeline in the Caspian Sea to transport oil from Kazakhstan to Azerbaijan.
According to Hossein Noqrekar-Shirazi, the deputy head of Iran's oil minister in international affairs, Irans objections are based on the fact that the pipeline will be constructed on the seabed and could pose threats to the ecological system of the Caspian Sea.
He added that Iran is against any plan that can disturb the ecological balance of the Caspian Sea. Russia also opposes the construction of the pipeline.
The transfer of oil produced in the Caspian Sea to global markets is considered a major obstacle for the littoral states.



The family of ethnic Azeri activist Abdullah Abbasi Javan says he has been held in Tehran's Evin prison for more than two months without being allowed to contact anybody and without being charged.
He was arrested along with nine others on November 14 while celebrating the anniversary of an Azerbaijani national hero. The others were released later.
His brother told RFE/RL that Javan during a previous arrest was mistreated and tortured and fears he is undergoing the same abuse this time.
When he was arrested in 2007, Javan was charged with promoting "pan-Turkism" and spreading propaganda against the regime.
(Photo RFE/RL)


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: abuse

January 28th were according to newsagency Fars in the city of Isfahan two men hanged.
The men, Ahmad A. and Reza A. (21) were convicted of murder.
Reza A. was sentenced to death in 2006, it is being investigated whether he was a minor when he was sentenced.



Human Rights Activists in Iran report that January 26th, agents of the Department of Intelligence searched at least ten houses of Baha'i-members and arrested two Baha'i.
The houses of Mr. Sirous Zabihi, Mr. Soheil Nasirzadeh, Mr. Davar Nabilzadeh and others were searched and religious books, writings, jewelry and computers were confiscated.
Ms. Sima Eshraghi and Mr. Jaleed Vahdat were arrested and taken to an unknown location.


According to reports of Human Rights activists in Iran, tens of prisoners in Rajaeeprison in Karaj are gone into hungerstrike. protesting the abuse by the prisonauthorities.
Last week 230 inmates of Section 16 unit 6 of Rajaee Prison Karaj were put on group detention due to conflicts with prison officials.
Their visiting rights and wintergarments were taken away and they had to stand outside from 6am till 9am without proper winterclothing.
Haroun Davani, Mehdi Zalieh, Behzad Sheikhi, Khaled Feraiduni, Mohammad Sedigh Fazli, Arkan Gol Takkin en Karim Maroof are some of the hungerstrikers.


A wave of systematic abuse of political prisoners began in the months after an administrator named Bozorgnia was put in charge of section 350 Evin prison in Tehran.
Telephoneconversations between prisoners and their family are eaves-dropped and people are forced to attend mass prayer or mourning rituals.
Mohammad Hasan Falahiezadeh and Ali Saremi, two political prisoners wrote a protestletter and were transferred January 24 in solitary confinement.
Hamidreza Mohammadi is transferred after protesting, he is possibly also been transferred to solitary confinement.
Ahmad Daneshpazir,a political prisoner who was set to be released, has been transferred to solitary confinement since January 11th. The overseeing judge ordered his transfer to solitary confinement on charges of insulting judicial authorities.
(Photo payvand.com)


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: car

January 27th were four men hanged in the prison of the city of Mashhad, Khorasan province.
The men were unidentified but daily Qods reported that they were convicted for kidnapping and rape of a boy.

In the prison of the city of Kazeroun, Fars province, is according to ISCAnews, on January 27th a man hanged.
The man, Hassan A. (28) was convicted of a murder 6 years ago.


Four months ago, September 2008 is Bulgarian truckdriver Zhivko Roussev, from Gulubovo, Bulgaria,
arrested in Iran on charges of carrying 135kg of heroin.
Iranian authorities told the Bulgarian embassy in Tehran that in Iran, anyone caught with more than 100g of heroin faces the gallows, regardless of nationality.


The Iranian Cartoon House has invited artists from around the world to participate in the country's Car International Cartoon Web Contest.
Cartoonists can send their work to cartoonscar@gmail.com until Feb. 18, 2009.
Selected works will be exhibited online.
Press-TV also reports that the contest will be sponsored by Saipa and Citroën.
There will be two sections on the themes of 'Car' and 'The future Car'.
More then 1850 artworks from 40 counties have been submitted and organizers estimate the number of countries to reach over 60.
Totally there are five prizes to win in the categories.
There will be an exhibition of the selected works in Tehran art galleries.


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: altered

In the prison of Bojnord, North Khorasan province are 6 men hanged January 25th.
According to IRNA the men were not identified, but the prosecutor said they were all convicted of drug smugling, rape, drinking alcohol, stealing and kidnapping.

In the prison of Arak were January 15, 4 men hanged.
The men, , A.N. (35), M-A. N (48), M.A. (25) and A.A. (24) were according to website Nameh Amir convicted of drugstrafficking.



January 29th is, according to newsagency one woman scheduled to be hanged in the prison of Rafsanjan, Kerman province.
The woman caused an accident, in which her husband was killed.
The lawyer of the woman says he has written a letter to the Head of the Iranian judiciary, asking him to use his power to halt the execution.



According to reports in different news-media, one of which Press-TV, Sundaynight ten police officers engaged in clashes with gunmen near the city of Zahedan, Sistan-e-Baluchestan province got killed.
How many armed gunmen were killed is not known,the surviving gunmen escaped to Pakistan.


Monday the EU officially removed the Mujahedeen Khalq Organization (MKO) from the list of international terroristic organizations.
Iran says in a statement that the EU move comes despite the fact that the intention of the MKO has not been changed.
The MKO has taken responsibility for carrying out numerous terror attacks against Iranian nationals and is accused of assisting Saddam Hossein in the nineties to kill thousands of Iraqis.
According to the US State Department were in the years prior to 1979 at least six American nationals killed by the MKO.


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: rumors

President Ahmadinejads health causes stir in Iran again.
Last week the president canceled all his appointments for the upcoming 4 days, due to a cold.
This was the second time within 3 months that Ahmadinejads health was in the news.
He also canceled a visit to Kermanshah province, due to airpollution.


Global Voices Online reports that Haftan, an Iranian site for cultural news is filtered by the authorities.
The government did not explain any reason.


An Iranian footballclub says that it has suspended three officials for allowing the club's female team and its youth male squad to play against one another.
The club Esteghlai suspended two officials for 1 year, one official for six months and a fourth official was fined.
The game, the first in 30 years was held in Southern Tehran, January 20th.
The daily Vatan-e-Emrooz wrote that the men won the game with 7-0.
The clubtrainer, Mansourian said that the incident happened because the trainghours of the two teams were overlapped and that there was no wrongdoing involved.
Videoclips taken by cellphones were used as evidence.


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: decline

The International Herald Tribune writes that hundreds of people protested outside the French embassy in Tehran against a EU agreement to remove the People's Mujahedeen Khalq Organization (MKO) from the EU's terrorist list.




Bahman Salimian, ,who was 15 years old when he murdered his grandmother in 1996 and for this after 12 years in prison was sentenced to death, is according to his lawyer Mohammad Mostafaei, in imminent danger of being executed on February 5th 2009.
Various times the execution was postponed due to the fact that familymembers of the victim had pardoned him and took bloodmoney. There is still one uncle seeking execution.
Salimian is now 27 years old.


The honeyproduction in Khorasan Razavi province is reduced by 90 percent because of drought.
There are 80 thousand hives in the province with a harvest capacity of 400 tons of honey per year, but this volume has been reduced to just 40 tons in the current year.
A few growers have moved their colonies to the city of Bandar Abbas, but there were no good results.


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: objects

In the Nar art gallery in Tehran will be an exhibition held from Jan. 30 to Feb. 10, 2009,of works of the cartoonist/artist Kambiz Derambakhsh.
20 of the artist's latest works in 1mx1m and 1mx1.5m dimensions will be shown and there will be large versions of a selection of works from among 5 to 6,000 sketches.
Over the years his work was exhibited around the globe in the Wilhelm Busch Museum, Dusseldorf Arts Gallery, Basel Caricature Museum and Austria's Afro-Asian Muslim student Society.
Kambiz Derambakhsh.



Press-TV reports that Iraq says that Camp Ashraf will be shut down in two months.
Iraq's National Security Adviser says that Iraq would not let the members of Mujahedin Khalq Organization carry out acts of terror against neighboring countries.
He said that the Iraqi government would deal with the members of the organization in a legal way, saying the MKO members should either return to Iran or select a third country.
Camp Ashraf, the MKO headquarters and training site, was put back from American to Iraqi control as of January 1, 2009.


According to the International Herald Tribune there are reports in Sarmayeh Business Daily and other Iranians that counting students and housewives among the ranks of the employed has helped lower Iran's jobless rate.
The report comes from an employee of the official Iranian statistical center who wishes to remain anonymous.
Earlier this month another development economist said the unofficial unemployment rate was considerably higher than the official figure of around 10 percent.



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: past and present

Amnesty International urged Iran to halt the deathsentence by stoning from
Gilan Mohammadi and Gholamali Eskandari,both incarcerated in Isfahan.
Since 2003, both are jailed in prison on charges of adultery after their spouses complained to law enforcement officials.
Their lawyer mr. Mohammad Mostafaei who last week was prevented access to his clients, fears they are in imminent danger of being stoned to death.
According to the “Stop Stoning Forever” Campaign, which seeks an end to the punishment, at least eight women and two men are at risk of being stoned to death in Iran.
Kobra Najjar, in Reja’i-shahr- Karaj (her sentence is by ayatollah Shahroudi changed to 100 whiplashes)
Iran A., in Sepidar Prison- Ahvaz
Kheirieh V., in Sepidar Prison- Ahvaz
Ashraf Kalhori, in Evin Prison-Tehran
Abdollah Farivar, -Sari Prison
Ghilan Mohammadi, in Central Prison -Isfahan
Gholamali Eskendari, in Central Prison - Isfahan
Afsaneh R., in In ‘Adel Abad Prison -Shiraz
de vrouw M.J., in Vakil Abad Prison - Mashhad
de vrouw H. in Vakil Abad Prison - Mashhad


Amnesty International urged Iran to stop the reported destruction of hundreds of unmarked graves in the massgrave Khavaran cemetary, south of Tehran, where many victims of the massmurder in 1988 on political prisoners are buried.
During the period between august 1988 and February 1989 were between 4,500 and 10,000 political prisoners killed.There are plans to transform Khavaran into a park project and the first cement panels were broken.
The cemetary is one of the few evidences of the massive human rights abuses in those days of the regime and for many familymembers of the victims it is the only place to commemorate their loved ones.


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: not allowed

According to reports from ISNA there were another three man hanged in the prison of the city of Yazd.
The men, Alireza, Hassan and Mohammad Hassan, were convicted of drugstrafficking.
This brings the total at 22 people having been executed in Iran in the past 2 days.

The daily Iran writes that one of the yesterday in the prison of Tehran executed men was probably a minor when he was convicted for murder four years ago.
Molla Gol Hassan (21) was sentenced to death for the murder of Fakhreddin in December 2004, this means he was 17 years old at that time.



Border police commander, Ebrahim Karimi, said Wednesday that security clampdowns along the country's border has claimed the lives of 120 rebels and 19 police members.
New security measures. as well on the eastern as on the western border are taken.
On the border with Pakistan is the Jundullahgroup active, in the Kurdistan area are regularly clashes with PJAK and there are also PMOI-members who oppose the government.


The Iranian Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance Mohammad-Hossein Saffar-Harandi said Wednesday that the new TV channel of BBC Persian Language service is illegal operating in Iran.
He said that the BBC Persian activities were not "directed toward good intentions".
January 14th, the transmissions for Persian-speakers in Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan were launched.
In December several BBC-reporters were arrested in Iran over espionage charges.
The reporters came under suspicion when they used different names to reserve rooms at their hotel accommodation.


A day after the natural gasflow from Iran to Turkey was halted due to maintenance, Iran resumed the gasflow.
Tuesday Iran temporarily shut down one of the pipelines due to technical problems.
Both countries' state gas companies confirmed that Turkey had been informed of the halt.

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: how many?

This morning were 10 men hanged in Evin prison in Tehran.
The names of those executed are not known, but Fars newagency reports that they all were convicted murderers.
The execution of one man was postponed for one month, since the family of the man he was convicted of murdering, were not present.He watched hanging of the other 10 men before he was being taken back to his cell.
Reports from ISNA say that in the prison of Yazd six men were hanged.
Ch. R. convicted of armed robbery, A.B. and A.S. convicted of rape, and three other unidentified men convicted of drug trafficking.
The journal Qods reports that January 20th in the Ghezal Hesar prison in Tehran a man named Gholam hanged for the selling of drugs in prison.
In the prison of Isfahan are January 20th Jan Mohammad M. (41) and Reza M (34) hanged for drugstrafficking.

The judiciary in Fars province denied the news from January 13th in daily Kayhan that two men with initials M.R. and M H.A. were hanged in the city of Jahrom.
According to the newssite Jahromnews were the hangings executed in January 2008.


The daily Etemad reports that the Iranian judiciary is to free two sisters sentenced to death by stoning for adultery, after they were cleared of the charges in a retrial.
The sisters Zohreh, 28, en Azar Kabiri, 29 were arrested in February 2007 after the husband of one of them presented a film allegedly showing them with other men.
In August 2007 the two received 99 lashes for an "illegitimate relationship'' and were then freed.
They were later rearrested and sentenced to death by stoning for adultery.
Iran's judiciary chief Ayatollah Shahroudi halted the verdict and said the video was not sufficient evidence for the ruling and that their living conditions had not been considered in the trial.
The lawyer of the women said the defendants could not be tried twice for the same offence.
The husbands of the women had withdrawn their complaint, declaring that the women in the video footage were not their wives.

According to their lawyer Arash and Kamiar Alaei are convicted to respectively 6 years and three years in jail for taking part in a plot to overthrow the Islamic republic with a "velvet revolution".
Their lawyer says he will appeal and ask for their release as there is no evidence proving their accusations.
The identity of the other two convicted remains still 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: announces, announces?

Friday is in the city of Qom a 25-year-old man flogged in public.
Local residents protested the sentence especially when the man's last name was also exposed by the local judge assigned to enforce the verdict.
In an interview last year with the head of judiciary Shahroudi, he said that flogging is one of most just sentences that can be inflicted on someone who has committed a crime.
Amnesty International says flogging was outlawed under Article 7 of the United Nations International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.



Former president Khatami has announced his candidacy for the upcoming presidential elections of June.
According to a report by Fars newsagency Khatami announced his final decision Monday.
Also in the report is that he is likely to choose former prime minister Mir-Hossein Mousavi as his vice president.
Whether president Ahmadinejad will seek a second term is unknown.
Former parliament speaker Mehdi Karoubi, who heads the reformist Etemad-e Melli (national confidence) party, has also declared his bid for presidency.
Former interior minister Mostafa Pour Mohammadi did also announce his candidacy.


The Central Bank of Iran announced that the inflation rate has decreased by nearly two percent in December.
The inflationrate is now estimated at 26.4 percent.
The report said that consumer prices increased by 1.3% during the Iranian month of Azar (ended December 20) in comparison to the previous month.
In November the CBI said that Iran had the highest annual inflation rate among Middle Eastern countries.



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