Iran: goals

The head of the Iranian Privatization Organization said that since 2005 Iran privatised $63 billion worth of government equity. This is approximately 50% of the 10-year plan to privatize 80 percent of state-owned assets.
In most cases the government handed 20 percent of the equity in targeted companies as "justice" shares to the poor and retains 20 percent. Of the remaining 10 percent, five percent is given to employees of the company and the rest is offered publicly to set a price prior to the majority stake sale.
Economists criticise the Ahmadinejad government for selling to companies run by state-appointed management. The biggest deal was the selling of 51% of shares of the Telecommunication Company of Iran (TCI) to an Iranian consortium for $8 billion.Reports suggesting that one of the consortium members belongs to the Revolutionary Guards Corps.
The IRGC has become a major economic force in recent years because of its controversial and overwhelming presence in the energy, finance and construction sectors.
source: PressTV, AFP


Reformist ayatolla Montazeri criticized the role of Basij militia in the violent suppression of the post-election protesters and said that the Basij was not established to serve "in the path of the Satan."
During the demonstrations the Basij violently attacked crowds and fired shots in the crowds. Authorities denied the role of the Basij and said that infiltrators in Basij uniforms had carried out the attacks.
The Basij was established 1979 by Khomeini to serve as a paramilitary organization to protect the country.
In the Iran-Iraq war thousands of Basij members died in the battlefield.
Since then the function of the Basij,which remain under the supervision of the Revolutionary Guards is changed.
Revolutionary Guard Commander, Hosein Hamadani announced that the function is modified and instead of a military, defensive function, from now on they will engage in "security and cultural activities".
He said to Mehrnews that "by security activities we mean confrontation of soft threats."
The government refers to the protest as so-called "soft war".
source: payvand.com




Green Brief

Enduring America





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: solidarity

Shirin Ebadi said in a interview that a revolutionary court confiscated all her personal bankaccounts, her pension, her husbands personal accounts and also his pension.
Iran said that the confiscation is because Ebadi owed taxes on the $1.3 million Nobel prize money.
She also told that she plans to leave for Iran soon.
source: reuters.com


Iranian stateradio said that the parliament passed a law Sunday wich allocates $20 million to investigate abuses and supporting progressive movements standing against illegal acts of the US and British governments.
ISNA writes that a workgroup, formed by Intelligence Ministry, Foreign Ministry, Telecommunication and Information Technology Ministry, Revolutionary Guard Corps and Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission will decide how to spend the budget.
source: newsinfo.inquirer.net

Relatives of Kianoosh Asa a student of Elm-o-Sanat university and a victim of the post-election events have written to Iranian authorities to investigate the details of his death and prosecution of its perpetrators.
June 15 he disappeared from a gathering after the election and 10 days later his corpse could be collected in the coroners office.
Eyewitnesses report that he was injured in the gathering by a "shot to his side." However, at the coroners office was evidence of another shot in the neck. The time of death and the details of the bullets were not specified.
source: payvand.com


In celebration of the United Nations' International Human Rights Day December 12, United 4 Iran will facilitate Arts United 4 Iran, a day devoted to worldwide displays of musical, visual, and performing arts in solidarity with Iranians and their fight for human rights in Iran.
That day, musicians, artists, writers and other people show their solidarity with students, humanrightsgroups and people in Iran.
Many cities worldwide planned events for 12 december, including Amsterdam, Berlin, Dusseldorf, London, Los Angeles, Paris, Phoenix, Salt Lake City, San Francisco, and Vancouver.
Narges Kalhor, the daughter of Mehdi Kalhor (advisor of Ahmadinejad) made a videomessage for support.
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In Iran there are childoffenders, still on death row.

Children are being hanged to death.
A child will be hanged to death.
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Iran: proceedings

The environmental graffiti blog publishes an article with historical photos, showing Iranian revolution in 1979.
source: environmentalgraffiti.com


The Iranian Foreign Minister Friday denied the confiscating of the Nobelprize of Shirin Ebadi by Iranian authorities.
The Norwegian Foreign Ministry said Thursday that Ebadi's gold Nobel medal and her award diploma had been removed from her bank box and summoned Iran's charge d'affaires in protest.
It also said Ebadi's husband had been arrested in Tehran and severely beaten. Iran did not reference to this accusation.
source: nytimes.com


Behzad Nabavi, is temporarily released for 10 days on an $800,000 bail.
Nabavi is a senior member of the Mujahedin of the Islamic Revolution Organization, a reformist group which has denied the legitimacy of the June presidential elections.
He is sentenced to 6 years in prison.
Shapoor Kazemi, Mir Hossein Mousavi's brother-in-law is also released on bail.
This amount is not specified.
source: payvand.com



Daily Harana reports that Sunday November 22, the son of martyr Seyed Mojtaba Hashemi, Commander of Partisan Battles, Seyed Ruhollah Hashemi, and his wife were killed in their house in Tehran.
Both were decapitated.
There is no information on who may be responsible.
source: ihrv.org


Abdollah Momeni, spokesman for the Alumni Association of Iran (Advar-e Tahkim Vahdait) is sentenced in the showtrial to 8 years in prison.
He was arrested June 21 and since then he was only once allowed to phone home.
When his familymembers were allowed to visit him, he was hardly able to walk, was bruised under his eyes and acted disturbed.
He suffers from a gastroenterological condition and previously experienced kidney failure while detained and requires medical treatment he cannot have in prison.
source: ihrv.org


November 23 is in Isfahan womans rightsactivist and member of the Onemillionsignaturecampaign Mehrnoush Etemadi, arrested by agents of the Information Ministry.
Her house was searched and the agents confiscated personal belongings.
The reason for the arrest is unknown.
source: ihrv.org


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Enduring America




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: held or hold

According toIRNA is in the prison of the city of Amol a man hanged.
The man, Mohammad S. (also known as Fattah) was convicted of keeping 472 grams of heroin.
The age of the man and the exact date of execution was not mentioned.
source: iranhr.net


Yesterday evening the program Nova on Dutch television broadcasted a taped interview with Mehdi Karroubi.
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Norway accuses the Iranian government of confiscating the Nobelprize from Shirin Ebadi. The Norwegian foreign ministry says that the gold Nobel medal and her award diploma had been removed from her bank box together with other personal items.
Authorities also froze the bankaccount of her husband Javad Tavassolian.
source: Reuters, AFP




November 24th started the acton (fa) "I am Atefe". Atefeh Nabavi is the first woman to receive a prisonsentence for participating in protests following the Presidential elections in June. 2009. She is sentenced to 4 years in jail.
The call is for all those who participated in protests following the elections, especially the June 15th protest,to write in support of Atefeh and in objection to the harsh sentence issued in her case by the Judiciary.



Nahid Keshavarz and Sarah Imaninan members of onemillionssignaturecampaign, were acquitted on the charge of actions against national security through a ruling issued by an appeal court.
Initially they were sentenced to a suspended sentence in jail
source: we change


International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran reports that scores of students are arrested throughout the country, prior to National Students Day, December 7, 16Azar.
Arrests are reported from Isfahan, Babol, Chaharmahal-o-Bakhtiari, Shiraz, Ilam, Kermanshah, Ghazvin, and in Tehran in Azad University, Tehran University, Amirkabir and Elm-o-Sanaat.
The Iranian judiciary doesn't inform relatives about the grounds for the arrest or about the place of detention.
According to the Amir Kabir newsletter are more then 60 students arrested in the past month.

A not complete list:

16 November: Lida Mohammadi, Sorveh Vaisi, Amaj Rahimi, Ahmad Esmaieli, and Pakhshan Azizi, were arrested.

17 November: Neda Eskandari and Khadijeh Ghahremani, students at Shiraz University were arrested.

19 November: At least 18 students are reported arrested in Tehran.
Abbas Hakimzadeh was arrested at home. Seven members of the Liberal Students group, including Sorena Hashemi, Alireza Mousavi, Farzan Raoufi, Sina Shokuhi, Alborz Zahedi, and Ehsan Dolatshah are arrested, agents of the Information Ministry attacked Ehsan Dolatshah’s house.
Six students of Alameh Tabatabai in Tehran, including Hamid Ghahvechian, Alireza Mousavi, Ahmad Mirhaheri, Alireza Zargar, Amir Kazempour, Tina Shokuhi, and Yaser Masoumi, are arrested in a coffee shop in Tehran.

That same day were two students, Rasoul Alinejad and Behrouz Faridi of Azad University in Tabriz, arrested.

20 November: Twentyfour students at Ferdowsi University in Mash’had were summoned to the Disciplinary Committee for participating in the protests of 4 November.

22 November: Eight students at Mazandaran university are each sentenced to 6 months in prison and 15 floggings.The students are Milad Hosseini Koshtan, Ali Nazari, Siavash Safavi, Ali Donyari, Maziar Yazdani Nia, Shoaneh Merikhi, Ali Abbasi, and Rahman Yaghoubi.
Also at 22 November, 20 students at Gilan University are summoned to the Disciplinary Court for participating in a protest against former Culture Minister cultuur Safar Harandi at 9 November,
and 50 students at Azad university in Najafabad, Isfahan province are summoned to the Disciplinary Committee for participation in the November 4th demonstration.

23 November: Mehdi Arabshahi, is summoned to the court in Tehran. In Ilam are students arrested, including Arash Khandel, Morad Basereh.

Qazvin University: Payam Heydar Ghazvini, Farhad Fathi, and Saieed Sakakian were arrested.
18 students at Shiraz University are arrested.
Banaie, Jalalli, Saied Rezaie, Zahedi, Zohourian, Aref, Pourfathi, Taheri, Safarpour and Poursultan are in Adelabad prison.
Dr. Masiholah Haghighatjou was arrested 4 November. Ali Saleh Pour, Kazem Rezaie, Yahya Tavousi, Neda Eskandari, Khadijeh Ghahremani, Nazari, Shirvani, and Bagheri are held in a detentioncentre of the Information Ministry.
Ten students of Shahr Kurd University in Chaharmahal-o-Bakhtiari are summoned to appear at the local office of the Information Ministry and 23 students are summoned to the Disciplinary Committee for participation in the November 4th demonstration.
source: International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran


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In Iran there are childoffenders, still on death row.

Children are being hanged to death.
A child will be hanged to death.
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Iran: more

ISCA reported that in Rajaeeprison of Karaj November 25, a man is flogged 80 times and after that is hanged.
The man, Mohammad A. (25) was convicted from rape and consuming alcohol.
source: iranhr.net


Amnesty International, Physicians for Human Rights and the International campaign for Human Rights in Iran urged in an open letter to the Speaker van Iran’s Parliament Ali Larijani and the Tehran Prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dowlatabadi for an independent and transparent investigation into the death of Ramin Pourandarjani(26).
The letter also urges the Iranian authorities to allow international forensic experts to participate in order to insure the integrity of the investigation into the young doctor's death.
Rahim Pourandarjani, who was a doctor in the Kahrizakprison was found dead on November 10 in an office in the Tehran Police Headquarters.
Authorities put out multiple versions of what occurred to Dr. Pourandarjani.
At first they told his father that he had a broken leg and died of heartfailure.Then they said he was poisoned. Finally it was reported that the doctor had committed suicide and suggesting that a note about his depression was found near the body.
source: amnestyusa.org


A total of 140 patients have lost their lives due to Mexican flu/swineflu/A H1N1 .The total of patients was November 25, 3.672. In the past seven days 444 new cases were reported.
Within the next ten days vaccin will be imported from France.
The Healthminister said that although reports indicate that there are 3672 H1N1 cases, infectious disease doctors believe that now more than one million people in Iran are infected with the virus.
She said that already 2.8 million vaccins are imported and according to a plan more than 200,000 vaccines will be imported each week to prevent a black market.
source: mehrnews.com



According to a plan which was made between the Ministry of Education and seminary representatives in Qum 4200 elementary, middle and high schools will be transferred to the care of the seminaries for five years. The ministry will remain in charge of providing the learning environment in the form of the school buildings, whilst the seminaries will provide the principals, administrators and the cultural and religious content.
The plan also indicates that the professional staff will be paid for by the Ministry of Education, while the expenses of the schools will be the responsibility of the seminaries.
source: payvand.com

The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran writes that new charges are made by commanders of the Revolutionary Guards against Kian Tajbakhsh.
Earlier this week, Tajbakhsh was brought in front of the Third Branch of the Security Court, which is a new court created and controlled apparently by the Revolutionary Guards to prosecute dissidents.
He was charged with new allegations of spying based on e-mails he wrote to Middle East specialists on the Gulf 2000 list, which includes hundreds of experts, diplomats, and journalists.
The Campaign has information that high Revolutionary Guards commanders initiated the new charges. He is currently held in solitary confinement in Evin prison.
He has already been sentenced to 15 years in prison by a lower court, on charges of espionage.
Tajbakhsh has been denied access to an independent lawyer and the authorities appointed a lawyer, Houshang Azhari.
source: iranhumanrights.org



Green Brief

Enduring America





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: written

7 members of Jundallah group will be tried on charges of mohareb (fighting against god) and the membership of the terroristic group of Abdolmalek Rigi. The head of the judiciary in Sistan-Baluchistan province told this to Fars news agency.
source: presstv.ir





Reporters without Borders reports that November 22, journalist Sasan Aghaei of the daily Farhikhteghan is arrested by agents of the Ministry of Information after they searched his home.
Aghaei, who also edits the blog Azad Tribun, is the third journalist of Farhikhteghan who is arrested since the election.
The other two, Masoud Bastani and Reza Norbakhsh are sentenced to 6 years in prison.
Reza Rafiee Foroshani, is sentenced to 7 years in jail plus a suspended sentence of 5 years in jail, on a spycharge.
Ahmad Zeydabadi is sentenced to a jailterm of 5 years, followed by living in exile in the city of Gonabad. At the same time, the amount of bail for a provision release was increased to 260,000 euro.
Mehdi Hossinzadeh was arrested July 31. Since then the authorities have said nothing about his case.
Bahaman Ahamadi Amoee was arrested June 20 together with his wife, Jila Baniyaghoob. Jila Baniyaghoob is released August 19. Bahaman Ahamadi Amoee has spent 65 days in solitary, one week ago he was transferred to Ward 350, but he is brought back to Ward 209.
He is ill and has fever.His lawyer is still not allowed to contact him after 5 months.
source: RSF


In an interview with CNN Canadian-Iranian journalist Maziar Bahari tells about his 4 months of detention.
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Green Brief

Enduring America





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: controversial

Newspaper Hamshari is banned after publishing an advertisement with a photograph of a Bahaitemple.
Hamshari belongs to the Tehran municipality and is Iran's highest-circulation newspaper.
The newspaper Etemad wrote that Khabar,a newspaper led by a conservative rival of Ahmadinejad decided to stop publication due to unspecified pressure.
source: Reuters


November 21st, 3 agents of Ministry of Information entered the house of Vahid Ismailzadegan where a Baha’i Nineteen Day Feast was held.
The agents cursed and beat Ismailzadegan. They handcuffed and took Soroosh Garshasbi who chaired the Feast. They forced the other Bahai to sit on the floor and they said that the Baha’is had no rights to hold a Feast.
After this they searched the house and took all the Baha’i books and a computer.
Then, they went to the house of another Bahai, Mokhtari , searched the house and arrested him.
Mokhtari was later released.
source: hra-iran.net


Last Thursday were Mohammad Nik-Khah and Hamid Ghahvehchian,two students of Shaid Beheshti and Allameh University, arrested by agents of the Ministry of Information.
Since then, there is still no information about them.
The number of arrests among University students as well as the fact that none of those arrested have contacted their lawyers and relatives has become the cause of growing concern about their fates.
source: hra-iran.net



New York Times reports that months before Ahmadinejad made a controversial appearance at Columbia University in 2007, the Alavi Foundation, (a nonprofit organization that had long supported educational programs related to Islamic and Iranian culture at schools and universities) donated $100,000 to Columbia.
Since federal prosecutors accuse the foundation of illegally providing money and services to Iran, this donation became a matter of interest.
The foundation donated a total of about $332,000 to Columbia over about 25 years for classes in Persian language and culture.
The $100,000 was for a course in classical Persian language, which received an additional $50,000 from the foundation the following year.
A spokesman from Columbia University said there is no connection between the donationd and the invitation to Mr. Ahmadinejad.
Other universities, including Rutgers, Harvard and Portland State, also received regular donations from the foundation.
source: nytimes.com

In the month October exported Iran 1,646,000 tons of crude oil to China.
By this it ranks third of oil suppliers to China, after Angola and Saudi-Arabia.
China imported in October 19,300,000 tons of crude oil.
Last year Iran exported 20,215,713 tons of crude oil to China.
source: tehrantimes.com



Green Brief

Enduring America



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: show

IRNA announced Sunday that Mohammad Ali Abtahi is temporarily released from jail on bail of $700.000.
The former vice-president was sentenced to 6 years in prison.
source: Reuter


Daily Jomhuri Eslami reported that 12 couples are arrested for engaging in illicit sexual acts, including swapping of partners.
The report also said that the couples runned a website, Iran Multiplication, to promote their activities.Those arrested held university degrees, some were government employees and had children.
No further details when or where they were arrested were given.
Extra-martital sex is forbidden in Iran.
source: AFP

In his first interview after his release Canadian journalist Maziar Bahari told he was beaten in prison and forced to sign a confession and that he contemplated to commit suicide.
Bahari was arrested in June while covering the unrest after the election.
He was accused of sending false election reports and disrupting public order by participating in illegal gatherings.
October 13, he was released.
source: canada.com


Human Rights Activists in Iran reports that Mohammad Sadeghi and Hassan Asadi were brought in court in hand and ankle cuffs.
The charges against Sadeghi include conspiracy and association against the regime, as well as propagating against the regime through media interviews. Sadeghi was kept for 14 days in solitary confinement in ward 240 of Evin.He is now in Ward 209 with 3 Belgiannationals.
Asadi and Sadeghi were arrested November 3.


The deathsentence against Mohammad-Reza Ali-Zamani, is upheld in appeal.
Zamani is one of the accused in the showtrials.
Evidence, published since the initial ruling proves that Ali-Zamani was in prison at the time of the June presidential election and could not have played any role in the post-election events.
Zamani made a false confessuon during the show, under pressure and because of promises made to him.
source: hra-iran.net



Green Brief

Enduring America




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