Monday, August 31, 2009

Iran: fates

Human Rights Activists in Iran published an interview with one of the detainees of the past months.
The man tells how after his arrest he was mistreated, tortured and threathened.
He was interrogated each day and beaten with batons. He was imprisoned for 58 days in Kahrizakprison.
One day he was told by the interrogator that they had his son in custody and would rape him if he didn’t confess.

When he finally was released, he found out that Kahrizakprison officially closed one week prior.
At that time there were still 70 people in the holding container. They were still holding hundreds of prisoners in Kahrizak at the time.

source: hra-iran.net


Zabihollah Raoufi, a BahaĆ­ resident from Sanandaj County is sentenced to one year imprisonment with exile to Minaab County.August 19 he was summoned to the Revolutionary Court .
Is not clear when the trial was hold, but it was held without presence of a lawyer or official judicial procedure.
In recent days 18 muslimfriends and acquaintances of Raoufi have been summoned to Sanandaj Intelligence Office and have committed not to socialize with Zabihollah Raoufi’s family.
source: hra-iran.net



Via Global Voices Online the The Muslim Network for Bahai's Rights shows a video about the problems BahaĆ­ are facing in Iran since 1979.



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Green Brief 63





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, August 30, 2009

Iran: changes

Today will the Iranian parliament debate the cabinet proposed by Ahmadinejad.
The appointment of three conservative women for the posts of health, education and welfare is controversial.
Hardliners are strongly opposed against women in cabinet.
Among the 21 proposed ministers are 14 new names.
The debatesession will last three days.
source: BBC


Around the city of Marivan, Kurdistan province have been big bushfires causing tremendous damage.
While trying to extinguish the fire, a mine exploded and injured Saadie Aminzadeh, 44, from the village Bakeray.
The locals suspect the government forces started these fires on purpose during fighting with Kurdish rebels.
So far there has been no reaction on these claims.
source: hra-iran.net


The names of the 12 police officers accused of abusing prisoners at the Kahrizak detention center will not be revealed.
Farhad Tajari, member of the Majlis special committee said that the names only be published when they are convicted.
The Majlis, the Judiciary, and other relevant government bodies have also agreed that defendants should only be identified if they are convicted.
However, the Supreme National Security Council decided that the trials of people who were arrested in the post-election unrest should be held publicly and should be broadcast on TV in order to make the process transparent and to inform the general public.
source: tehrantimes.com


Prosecutor Saeed Mortazavi, aka "the butcher of Tehran"is fired by the new head of the judiciary.
Mortazavi was behind the closure of more than 120 newspapers and the imprisonment of dozens of journalists and political activists.
IRNA reported that the head of judiciary, Sadeq Larijani, Abbas Jafari Dowlatabadi appointed as prosecutor for Tehran.
source: theledger.com



Green Brief is not published yet.





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, August 29, 2009

Iran: history

August 24 is Fariba Pajooh, reporter for Etemad-e Melli and newsagency ILNA, arrested and transferred to Evinprison.She also writes a blog.
Lawyer Abdolfatah Soltani, who was arrested June 16, is released after paying a bail of 90,000 euro.
August 22 is blogger Somayeh Tohidloo, released. She was arrested June 14 and was imprisoned in ward 209 of Evinprison.
source: RSF

August 26 is reporter Zhila Baniyaghoub released.




Abdullah Ramazanzadeh is transferred to Baghiyatullahhospital. During the last visit from his familymembers, which always took place under the supervision of his interrogator, he was faible and he said he thought he might have been suffering from a viral infection.
Baghiyatullahhospital isaffiliated with the Revolutionary Guards Corps.
source: ihrv.org

According to reports made by the Persian Service of Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism (CHN) in Fars province in the beginning of August, is more then 70% of the Gondashluquarry, which provided the stone for building Persepolis, destroyed.
This was done by a stone company who is licensed by the Islamic Republic Ministry of Industrials and Minerals.
The license was issued contrary to the ministry’s statement back in March 2006 that no licence will ever be issued for mining operations, in any of the ancient quarries in the province.
Last week CHN said in a statement that the reports are not true.
Archeologists have visited the site and have found no evidence of mining operations.
CHN also says that mining operations near Gondashlu were stopped six months ago after miners approached the historical site.
Experts believe Gondashlu was used by Achaemenid in building Persepolis due to its high quality stones.
source: CAIS en PressTV


Green Brief 61-62





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, August 28, 2009

Iran: tied

August 22, 5 agents from the Ministry of Intelligence raided and searched the house of Dr. Mohammad Malaki and arrested him. They also confiscated 80 books a computer and personal papers.
They videotaped the house during their search and when asked for the reason, they replied that they wanted to deliver the tapes to Judge Hadad.
Due to treatment for his advanced prostate condition Dr. Maliki is suffering from the side-effects and spent most of the last three months at home.
source: ihrv.org

June 14 is Kayvan Samimi arrested and was in Evinprison since.
During this time, he has contacted his family twice and been allowed to visit them twice as well.
He is managing editor for the banned magazine called Nameh, executive member of the National Peace Council, head of the Society Supporting Rights to Education, member of the Committee to Pursue Arbitrary Arrests, executive member of the Society in Defense of Freedom of the Press and founder of Political Prisoners Center.
Because he believes his activities are within the limits of the laws prescribed by the constitution, he refuses to comply with the wishes of his captors.As a result he has been tortured and is in solitary confinement.
source: ihrv.org


PressTV writes that Canada asked for the release of Canadian-Iranian reporter Maziar Bahari . Bahari was arrested June and is accused of acting against Iran's national security.
He worked for Newsweek and had connections with the BBC and Britain's Channel 4 news.
source: PressTV



In a speach prior to Fridayprayers president Ahmadinejad has called for a severe punishment for those orchestrating the post-electional unrest.
He also said there was no electoral fraud in June and he called on officials to bring to justice the "architects" of the post-election unrest.
He lashed out at Western countries for interfering in the internal affairs of the country both before and after the election and advised them to compensate for their 'blunders'.
source: PressTV



The blog Revolutionary Road tells the story of a student of Ferdosi Mashhad University who was arrested, tortured and after a week transported to Evin prison, where he was blindfolded interrogated and severely beaten.
He is released after paying $50.000 bail.








Green Brief is not published.




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, August 27, 2009

Iran: written

Mohammad Ali Abtahi, a wellknown reformist blogger and former reformist vicepresident blogs (fa) from jail.


He writes that he is still being interrogated ,but he has a very friendly relation with the interrogator and protesters in prison know that there was no significant fraud in Iran's presidential election.
source: GlobalVoicesOnline


Paymon Aref an imprisoned student activist, stays in prison for his 18 months sentence , although he is imprisoned now with other charges. The court ordered to execute his sentence after the appeal's court confirmed it.
The recent charges have not been tried in court.
source: hra-iran.org



Parviz Mirzai, 23, a Kurdish citizen of Soufian Village near Oroumieh, has been shot and killed by Basij forces on his way home from a wedding.
Eyewitnesses reported that the Basij Forces ordered two vehicles to stop at a checkpoint and one vehicle fled.
The Basij Forces, assumpting the two vehicles belonged together opened fire at the passengers, killing Mirzai and critically injuring another.
Although two months has elapsed since this event, the family of Mirzai did not receive notice on the letter that was submitted to the Military Tribunal of Oroumieh requesting an investigation and identification and trial of the Basijis for the unwarranted violence against their son.
source: hra-iran.org



The family of the head of Expediency Council Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani, filed a complaint to president Ahmadinejad.
Ahmadinejad accused Rafsanjani of corruption in a election televisiondebate.
During the fourth round of the showtrial a defendant accused Rafsanjani's son, Mehdi Hashemi-Rafsanjani of embezzling $2 million in 2005 of the assets of the Iranian Fuel Conservation Organization, which was previously headed by him.
He spent the money to finance his father's presidential campaign in 2005.
In a letter to the Head of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) Mehdi Hashemi-Rafsanjani said that the remarks were sheer lies and called for an opportunity to appear on TV to defend himself against the accusation
source: PressTV

285 people in Iran had been diagnosed with swineflu/Mexican flu/ A H1N1.
In Maragheh (East Azerbaijan) has a woman died of the flu because she also suffered from chronic respiratory problems and in Tehran is a 12-year-old boy with the flu in a "bad condition" in hospital.

source: reuters


Green Brief is not yet published.





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, August 26, 2009

Iran: secretly


Amnesty International asks attention for Shapour Kazemi, 62, the brother-in-law of Mir Hossein Mousavi who is detained shortly after the disputed election on 12 June.
He is hold without charges and does not have access to a lawyer.
He is reported to have had one meeting with his mother, which was filmed by prison guards.
Kazemi has no political background or was actively involved in Mir Hossein Mousavi's presidential campaign.
Amnesty International has started an urgent action to urge Iranian authorities to release Kazemi.
source: payvand.com


The website Norooznews reported that on July 12 and 15, 44 unidentified people who lost their lives in the postelection violence were buried in unidentified graves at the Behesht Zahra cemetery.
The website, which is close to party Mosharekat, will reveal more information the coming days.

video 1:


video 2:



In the meantime members of parliament asked for an investigation.
The director of the cemetary says it are all rumors.
Norooznews says that people can go and visit the graves, en that the graves are at section 302 of the cemetary.
source: payvand.com

Former president Khatami said that the socalled "confessions", made by detainees at the "showtrials"that they are invalid and have been obtained under extraordinary conditions, such claims are sheer lies and false.
Tuesday stated Saeed Hajjarian, an ally of Khatami, that he had made major mistakes during the election by presenting incorrect analyses and apologizes to the Iranian nation for those mistakes.
source: reuters.com


Green Brief is not yet published.





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, August 25, 2009

Iran: glibly

In the Susangerd oilfield in Khuzestan province, Iran discovered reserves to a depth of 5,026 meters, and approximately over 8.83 billion barrels of oil.
The oilminister described it as the most significant discovery in the past 5 years.
source: PressTV



From the 290 lawmakers invited to a party hosted by the president night, only 20 attended
The reformist paper Etemad cited unidentified members of parliament as saying their absence signaled disappointment at the president's proposed cabinet.
The assembly is due to start voting on the nominees on August 30.
source: reuters


Iranian officials blamed a victim of jailhouse rape and said it was his own fault for protesting the results of Iran's June 12 presidential election.
The website of Mehdi Karroubi writes that one of the victims asked two interrogators and a judge why he and other prisoners were raped in jail.
One of them answered that when the Supreme Leader confirmed the election result, everyone should have recognized it.
On Karroubi's website is the interview (fa).
The boy told also he was very suicidal and depressed at first, but after he and Karroubi had many conversations Karrroubi convinced him that when someone is raped with his hands and feet tied he is not a sinner and is on the contrary an oppressed.
source: latimesblogs.latimes.com


This morning the fourth showproces of senior reformers was being held in Tehran.
Iranian newsagencies report that several reformist politicians are standing trial, former deputy interior minister Mostafa Tajzadeh, former deputy foreign Mohsen Aminzadeh, former governmental speaker Abdollah Ramezanzadeh and Iranian-American scholar Kian Tajbakhsh.
Statetelevision broadcasted the accused sitting in rows.
Also Saaed Hajjarian former deputy minister of intelligence and one of the architects of the reformist movement stand trial. After an assassination attempt in 2000 he is severely disabled and in bad health.
So-called "confessions" were read.
Fars neewsagency published photo's of the trial.
source: reuters.com


Green Brief is not published yet.





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, August 24, 2009

Iran: common

Fars newsagency reported that the Revolutionary Guards killed 26 Kurdish members of the Party of Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK) and other groups.
This happened in an operation to clean up the West Azerbaijan and Kurdistan provinces.
There was no mention of when the killings took place.
source: en.trend.az



Arash Sadeghi , member of Young Wing of Islamic Iran's Cooperative Party, and active member of Mir Husayn Mousavi's electionscampaign is 44 days ago arrested.
Since his arrest his condition and location are unknown.
There is a possibility that he was transferred to Kahrizak.
Despite the closure of this prison the whereabouts of those arrested and kept at Kahrizak prior to its closing remain unknown.
source: hra-iran.net



August 17 augustus are in the city of Ahvaz political activists Pejman Rahimi and Mohammad Esmail Vandi arrested.After their arrest they are transferred to an undisclosed location.
Despite follow-ups by the families, no further information is available.
source: hra-iran.net



Human rights activist and a member of the School Teachers Union Jafar Ebrahimi-Azandaryani has been transferred 3 weeks ago to ward 209 of Evinprison. He has anxiety attacks, difficulty breathing and is not able to move his right leg.
The warden has refused him medical treatment as he believes anxiety attacks is common in prison.
He has been detained without arraignment.
source: hra-iran.net


The speaker of parliament , Ali Larijani has agreed to meet Mehdi Karroubi.
July 29 reported Karroubi in a letter to Rafsanjani about torture and rape in prisons. August 12 Larijani said that the claims that detainees were raped or sexual abused were “totally baseless”, he later said that 100 charges had been examined before he made the remarks.
19 August Karroubi said he had documentation to support his allegations and that he wanted a meeting with president Ahmadinejad, Ali Larijani, EC Chairman Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani,the new judiciary head Ayatollah Sadeq Larijani, and head prosecutor Ayatollah Qorban-Ali Dori-NajafabadLarijani.
source: tehrantimes.com



Time writes an article about Mehdi Karroubis growing role in the challenge of Irans government.
Since the presidential election he is more and more confronting the government.
source: time.com





Green Brief is not published yet.




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, August 23, 2009

Iran: inhumane behavior

TimesOnline reports an interview about a 15-year-old boy who was severely abused and raped during his detention.
It started mid-July when he was arrested with about 40 other teenagers during an opposition demonstration in a large provincial city and taken to what he believes was a Basiji militia base.
They were blindfolded, stripped to their underwear, whipped with cables and then locked in a steel shipping container.Hisfamily finally secured his release on bail of about £45,000.
An Amnesty International Iran researcher, said that his case was “consistent with other reports they have received in terms of the severity of disregard for human dignity, the unrestricted abuse without any recourse to justice, the involvement even of judicial persons in rape abuse and the denial of the basic right to healthcare”
source: timesonline.uk



Ahmad Zeidabadi, a detained journalist of Rooz Online and the spokesperson for Advare Tahkim Vahdat student organization,is under very intense pressure to stop all political and media work.
He is imprisoned since June 21 in an undisclosed location and met his family Monday for the first time since then.
He has been in solitary confinement for 35 days and he had been kept in a box-type of container about 1.5 meters long.He is in very bad physical and psychological condition.
source: roozonline.com


Saturday an Iranian MP vows to examine allegations that dozens of unidentified people killed in the recent post-election unrest were secretly buried last month.
The site norooznews.org reported Friday that an unnamed employee of the capital's Behesht Zahra cemetery said that 44 unidentified corpses were buried July 12 and 15 amid heavy security.
Iranian officials say that as few as 20 people died, opposition figures say that at least 69 have been killed in Tehran alone and estimate the number of dead nationwide to be in the hundreds.
The government tries to downplay the numbers by pressuring families not to hang mourning banners on their homes and ordering mosques not to allow memorial services.
source: latimes.com


GlobalVoicesOnline reports about testimonies of supporters of Mousavi and Karroubi who were abused and raped in prison.
These are no new phenomenons in Iran's prisons.
A former political prisoner recounts the experience of being imprisoned, tortured and raped in an Iranian prison in the 1980s when she was lonly 17 years old.



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An interview with a survivor from Kahrizakprison, who told they were forced to lick water from the floor.

Khamenei closed the prison and a member of parliament said that 12 people were arrested.

Here is aanother testimony of a prisoner in Evinprison who tells about the tortures in prison.


Green Brief is not yet published.





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