Sunday, May 31, 2009

Iran: ratio

May 27 is a man hanged.
The man, A.Gh. was convicted for a murder he committed in 2005, when he was 19-year-old.
ISCA reports that the execution of two other men is postponed.
source: iranhr.net


According to the site "Iranian activists for human rights and democracy" is execution of Mehdi Mazroei postponed.

source: iranhr.net


Various newsagencies in Iran report that plain-clothed agents found a bomb in the toilets of an airplane shortly after it took off from the city of Ahvaz.
After the plane made an emergency landing it resumed its flight after the bomb was defused.

source: BBCnews


The presidential candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi said that he supports womens rights.
During an election speech in Tehran he said that laws that are unfair to women should be reformed.
His wife, Zahra Rahnavard and the wife of Mehdi Karroubi, the other reformist candidate, both are taking an active role on the campaign trail.
source: BBCnews



Campaigning for the Iranian presidential elections is going as far as You Tube.
Global Voices Online has videos.
The first video compares Mir Hossein Mousavi and president Ahmadinejad and does so on the tune of the old song: "Anything you can do, I can do better".
In the end the text says that Mousavi is more rational than Ahmadinejad.




A controversial video shows how former president Khatami told an ethnic joke about an Azeri from Ardebil who did something stupid, although his intention was to show that the Ardebilis are geniuses.
Over this video protested some hundred Azeri students against Khatami for making this joke.
They asked Mousavi, who is Azeri himself, to condemn Khatami. Khatami has claimed the film is a fake montage.

Another video shows reformist candidate Mehdi Karroubi and his supporters forcefully broke through the gates of Amir Kabir University when he was banned by university authorities from delivering speech.


Global Voices online also writes that Khatami through internet (Face Book, Twitter and Yahoo Messenger)takes part in an internet discussion.
Blogger Sahel Salamt writes (fa) that these elections are the first where a high- ranking politician answers directly questions on the internet.


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

Saturday, May 30, 2009

Iran: future?

Three men were Saturday hanged in public for bombing a mosque on May 28, in the city of Zahedan.
The men were already in custody before the attack.
One Iranian official had earlier accused the US of hiring mercenaries to carry out the bombing, which claim was dismissed by Washington.
The men were arrested in connection with other attacks, including a 2007 attack on Iran's Revolutionary Guard, in which 11 people died.
The men have been tried and were convicted of being 'mohareb' (enemies of God) and 'corrupt on the earth' and acting against national security.
The responsibility for the bombing of Amir al-Mohinimosque, was claimed by sunnigroup Jundulla through Saoudi-owned TV-channel AlArabia
source: BBCnews

According to the site "Iranian activists for human rights and democracy" is the minor offender Mehdi Mazroei,in Dastgerdprison, Isfahan, scheduled for execution tomorrow.
He is convicted for a killing he committed when he was 17-year-old during a fight.
source: iranhr.net


The Wall Street Journal writes about the increased pressure in which ngo's, human rightsactivists and human rights lawyers live in Iran.
The last five years is the pressure against women, students, journalists and activists increased after a period of relative openness.
In the article is also an interview with the lawyer Mohamad Mostafaei, who represents 30 of the 135 criminals under the age of 18 on Iran's death row.
Here a photoserie.
source: Wall Street Journal

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

Friday, May 29, 2009

Iran: responsible

In the city of Zahedan, Sistan-e-Baluchestan province, occurred a bomb-explosion from a bomb, planted in a mosque.
IRNA reported more then 20 people killed, and 125 people wounded.
The governor of Sistan-e-Baluchestan province said that 80 of the injured are now hospitalized.
The blast came during eveningprayers. Till now no terroristic group or individual has claimed responsibility.
source: Press-TV



Iran’s OPEC governor said Friday that the rise in prices for crude oil a day after OPEC decided to keep the output steady shows the market has welcomed the decision.
It seems that the rise of prices was derived from psychological elements and that the fundamental factors of the market do not support the crude oil prices.
Considering the existing crude oil storage there is the concern that the prices will again fall down.
source: ISNA


Jelveh Javaheri, activist in the One Million Signatures Campaign was arraigned with the following charges: acting against national security through membership in One Million Signatures Campaign with aim to disturb public order and security.
She was taken from Evin prison to Revolutionary court and branch one of the Security Prosecution office and back.
One of her lawyers was also present, however, even though her representation letter was confirmed, she was not allowed in to the court session.
Jelveh’s mother delivered her complaint letter to the head of Judiciary, to the office of Mr. Shahroodi’s but her letter was not accepted and she was told that the letter needs verification and seal from Evin prison.
The parents of Kaveh Mozafari (Jelveh's husband), also delivered their complaint letter to the head of the ministry of justice for the state of Tehran,.
They too were rejected and they were told to return to the ministry of justice during the following week’s public viewing.
source: We Change


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

Thursday, May 28, 2009

Iran: hypocrisy


In the prison of Sirjand, Kerman province is a man hanged.
ISCA reported that the unnamed man was convicted for drugstrafficking.
source: iranhr.net



Six students of Amir Kabir University in Tehran who were released on bail,
have reported being harshly interrogated, beaten over long periods of time, and tortured in an effort to force them to confess to relations with the United States, Israel, and the Mojahedin (MEK) opposition group.
Kourush Daneshyar, Hosein Torkashvand, Esmaiel Salmanpur, Nariman Mostafavi and Yaser Torkaman were released April 25 after paying bail between $200,000 and $300,000.
Ahmad Ghasaban was released May 11, 2009, after paying bail of $200,000.
Majid Tavakoli was ordered to be released on bail, but is still in jail although he has posted bail.
Three students remain in detention.
Abbas Hakimzadeh en Mehdi Mashayekhi remain in prison on intelligence officials’ orders and are reportedly in dire condition.
No information is available about Masoud Dehghan.
source: iranhumanrights.org


The deathsentence by stoning against Rahim Mohammadi and Kobra Babaei,who are imprisoned in Tabriz, has been upheld by branch 27 of the Supreme Court.
The couple, which has a 12-year-old daughter, began to engage in prostitution after failing to escape extreme poverty.
They turned for help to governmental officials and others and certain officials were willing to help them in exchange for sexual relations.
In an interview with Rooz their lawyer told that he wrote a letter to the country’s attorney general about the ethical degradation of some (in the letter named) government officials, who agreed to help Rahim only in exchange for having sexual relations with his wife.
In this case, 31 individuals were arrested, most were government officials, who were contacted by his clients for help.
They have all received light sentences.
source: roozonline.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

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Iran: decide

StopChildExecutions in Iran reports that AFP said that the execution of Mohammad Reza Haddadi, which was scheduled for this morning is postponed by head of judiciary Ayatollah Shahroudi.
His lawyer also said that the Supreme Court has also asked for a review of the case.
source: scenews.blog.com



Iran unblocked Facebook just days after the website was banned.
ILNA said the site is now accessible again. The lift of the ban came a day after Iranian President Ahmadinejad denied he was behind the decision to block the site.
The site has been blocked and unblocked numerous times over the last few days.
source: latimes.com



Iran's Football Federation (IFF) has accepted the US request to hold two friendly matches between the two countries' national soccer teams.
The US Football Federation sent the invitation for October or November at Tehran's Azadi Stadium.
The IFF president said that Iran is interested in holding friendly matches against the United States,and that the first leg of the match will be held in the Iranian capital Tehran and the second leg in the US.
Iranian sports officials said that the Iran-US matches must be approved by the International Council of Iranian Physical Education.
source: Press-TV



ILNA reported that Iranian speaker for parliament Larijani was re-elected today.
241 of the 247 members of parliament participated in the voting.
Larijani was re-elected with 216 voted for and 25 against.
The speaker of parliament is elected every year and the parliament is elected ever four years.
source: news-en.trend.az



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

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Iran: strut


The student of industrial management in the Independent University of Qazvin, Hood Yazerlo was exiled to Raja’i prison in the city of Karaj after confirmation of his sentencing.
He was sentenced to a three-year jail term in exile, after being summoned on May 24, 2008, before the court.He spent nine months in section 209 in Evin Prison.
His mother, Nazila Dashti received the same sentence.
Both were charged with supporting an anti-regime party.
source: ihrv.org


On March 5, Maryam Rostampour, 27, and Marzieh Amirzadeh, 31, were detained in Tehran and have been held in the women’s section of Evin Prison since then.
Both women were converted to christianity.
They are charged with attempts against national security and propaganda against the regime by promoting Christianity.
Under Islamic law this is heresy and punishable by death.
source: ihrv.org


Security forces have arrested 104 people accused of being devil worshipers, seizing drugs and alcohol during a party in Shiraz.
Mehr agency reported that the Revolutionary Guards had been investigating the group, whose members cut themselves and sucked their blood, leading to the arrests on Sunday.
source: nytimes.com


Iran's Oil Minister said that the country has reached self-sufficiency in producing oil and gas pipelines.
During the past four years the country invested 66 million dollars in the pipeline producing sector to meet its domestic demand.
Some 45,000 kilometers of pipelines have been laid across the country to transit gas and oil to the cities and villages.
87 percent of urban areas and 30 percent of rural regions have access to gas in the country, the government wants to increase these figures to respectively 90 and 40 percent.
source: Press TV

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

Monday, May 25, 2009

Iran: different games

Today and tomorrow, May 26, this blog will not appear in the Dutch version. (proefondervindelijk).



Mohammadreza Haddadi, who alledgedly committed a murder when he was 15-year-old, is scheduled to be executed May 27th in Adelabad prison of Shiraz .
His lawyer wrote in his blog that Haddadi's father has been informed that his son will be hanged on Wednesday.
source: iranhr.net


Human Rights Watch calls for the Iranian government to immediately release student activist and leading defender of the rights of political prisoners Behrooz Javid-Tehrani.
Behrooz Javid-Tehrani is currently imprisoned in the section they call "doghouse" in Gohardasht prison in Karaj city, with his hands and feet cuffed.
Gohardasht Prison, (also known as Rajavi Shahr), was one of the main sites of the 1988 mass summary executions of political prisoners which killed thousands.
He has been on hungerstrike for 18 days now and his health is in danger.
The first time he was arrested in 1999 during the student protests and was sentenced to eight years in prison on charges of "acting against national security."After his release he was arrested in 2005 and has been tortured and illtreated.
He was sentenced by judge Hadad of branch 26 of the Revolutionary Court in Tehran to four years in prison for membership in an "illegal" organization (the Iranian DemocraticFront) that "acts against state security," 40 lashes for "insulting the leadership and the state," and three-and-a-half years on charges of belonging to the Mojahedin'e Khalgh Organization (MKO).
Human Rights Watch says that his life is in immediate danger, in light of the suspicious deaths of political prisoners at Gohardasht prison.
source: hrw.org



Iran's national soccer team will use the Iranian President's plane to fly to Pyongyang to face North Korea's team.
In an interview with newspaper Etemad Melli stated the chairman of the Iranian Football Federation that the team is scheduled to play against United Arab Emirates (UAE) four days later. Therefor they have asked permission to use the presidental plane.
The game against North Korea will be held on June 6.Iran managed to defeat the Korean outfit 2-1 in their previous match in the group, held in Tehran.
Iran plays in group B with Saudi Arabia, South Korea, the UAE and North Korea.Iran is placed fourth.
source: Press TV


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

Sunday, May 24, 2009

Iran: inspiration

May 25 and 26, this blog will not appear in the Dutch version. (proefondervindelijk).


Last Wednesday were in the prison of Shiraz four people hanged.
A woman, Afsaneh (29),convicted of extramarital relationship and murdering her husband in 2006,
An Afghan, name and age not given, convicted of raping a woman in 2005,
A man, Rasoul, convicted of keeping drugs,
A man 20, convicted for a murder, committed in 2006.
Following this information, the man was a minor when he committed the crime.
Iran Human Rights is investigating about this case.
source: iranhr.net

Iran blocked the social networksite Facebook.
ILLNA reported that the move was made to stop supporters of reformist candidate Mir Hosssein Mousavi to use the site for campaigning.
His page on Facebook has more than 5,000 supporters.
source: BBC News


Roxana Saberi,the released Iraanian-American journalist has after a short stay in Austria, returned to the USA.
Al-Jazeera reported that singing of the American national anthem helped her during her time in prison. She thanked everybody who supported her , President Barack Obama, Hillary Rodham Clinton, the secretary of state, North Dakota politicians, human-rights groups and the Japanese government.
Press Tv reported that everybody got thanked except for President Ahmadinejad who wrote a letter, where he insisted on a fair legal treatment.
source: english.aljazeera.net


Saturday is a 32-year-old woman arrested who is deemed to be the first Iranian serial killer.
The woman, Magan has been charged with the murder of six people including five women in Qazvin.
In her confessions said that she had taken patterns from Agatha Christie books.
The motivation for the killings was money, and the victims, most elderly women were drugged with fruit juice and strangulated.
Two male accomplices of the woman have also been arrested.
source: Fars Newsagency.


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

Saturday, May 23, 2009

Iran: difficult

Next Monday and Tuesday, May 25 and 26, this blog will not appear in the Dutch version. (proefondervindelijk).




The Student Council of Defense of Human Rights in Kurdistan reported that the political prisoner Behrouz Javid Tehrani, more then two weeks ago was transferred to Section 1 (torture chambers) of the Gohardasht Prison, also called "Dark hole" or "End of the Road".
He also has been beaten there by batons while blindfolded and handcuffed.
Familymembers say that he is on the 16th day of his hungerstrike and his mental and physical condition worsens.
Since the student demonstrations of 1999 he was in prison for short or long periods and the past four years he was imprisoned in Gohardasht prison.
source: eastkurd.blog.co.uk


The International Women’s Media Foundation awarded Iranian journalist Zhila Baniyaghoub with its 2009 prize for Courage in Journalism.
She receives this award for her work as independent journalist who is a managing editor of the website for the Iranian Women’s Center.
In the statement it says that she has ignored the censuring of her reports, and as a result she has been unemployed repeatedly.
source: ihrv.org



ILNA reported that a group of family members of workers who died in the explosion at the Babnizo and Ba-Amiri mines in Kerman province met with a representative in parlement from the cities of Zarand and Kohbenan.
One of the dead workers’ children criticised the authorities and said at the start of the meeting that this is not only about to get financial restitution, but that everybody has lost a beloved person and they demand an answer regarding the incompetence that led to the explosion that cost the lives of 12 miners.
The end of April the explosion occurred in the coalmine and since then the authorities did little to find the cause.
source: ihrv.org


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

Friday, May 22, 2009

Iran: propagate

Next Monday and Tuesday, May 25 and 26, this blog will not appear in the Dutch version. (proefondervindelijk).



Four worldwide Unions have called a worldwide action day on June 26 to demand justice for Iranian workers.
The ITUC (International Trade Union Confederation), EI (Education International), ITF (International Transport Workers’ Federation), IUF (International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers' Associations), backed by Amnesty International, are forming a coalition for the event to secure justice and trade union rights inside Iran.
They are calling for the immediate and unconditional release of jailed trade union members and leaders including Mansour Osanloo, Ebrahim Madadi and Farzad Kamangar. They also call for annulment of the one year prison sentences against the five leaders of the Haft Tapeh Sugarworkers' Union, as well as the release of trade unionists arrested in Tehran on May Day.
source: ei-ie.org



The strike last week of the workers at Iran Khodro Car Company was ended successful.
The workers immediate demands were payment of their unpaid wages (productivity and bonuses) and to switch workers on temporary contracts to contracts of the Iran Khodro Company itself.
At first the new management would not pay the wages and bonuses and suspended paying, but confronted with the workers’ protest, it paid the wages to stop the protest spreading.When this was not enough and the strike widened, the management announced that all workers will be covered by the public commitment.
source: iswn.org


The spokesman for the judiciary said that an aide from Shirin Ebadi is charged with "propagating against the Islamic system".
Narges Mohammadi was banned from Tehran Airport May 10, when she and Sorayah Azizpana wanted to go to Guatemala to speak at a conference there on the role of women in democracy.
source: indopia.in


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

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Iran: decide

Next Monday and Tuesday, May 25 and 26, this blog will not appear in the Dutch version. (proefondervindelijk).



In the prison of the city of Isfahan is May 19 a man hanged.
Newsagency Fars reported that the man Mahmood, 25 was convicted of the murder of another man.
source: iranhr.net



The lawyer of Akram Mahdavi (34) has told in an interview with Rooz Online that the case is in consultation with the head of the judiciary.
She is sentenced to death and is in Rajai Shahr prison in the city of Karaj.
$ 18,500 is collected but the victims family refuses to give clemency.
Akram Mahdavi murdered her 50-year older husband, after eight years of forced marriage and two refused divorce applications.
source: ihrv.org


Human rightslawyer and founder of Society for the Defense of Prisoners' Rights, Emad Baghi, has won the the 2009 Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders.
His documenting of death row prisoners in Iran, including juvenile offenders, has served as an important resource for United Nations and other rights groups.
Baghi spent the past four years in prison and is released August 2008 with a critical condition.
He suffers from heart and kidney ailments, and still faces charges for his work for prisoners' rights. These charges include research that showed Islamic law holds no doctrinal requirement for maintaining capital punishment.
source: in.reuters.com


Presidential candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi's wife, told a gathering of young women who support Mousavi, that women in Iran should have a greater social freedom.
They must feel both secure and liberated, in other words, they must be allowed to freely choose their career, work environment, and clothing [in compliance with Islamic dress code].
Zahra Rahnavard Arts professor at the University of Tehran, also said that with the adoption of the correct policies, discrimination could end.
Mousavi himself said Tuesday that he promises to try to broaden women's rights by seeking changes in legislation.
He is the first candidate in Iranian politics to introduce his wife in an active role in the campaign.
source: Press TV


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