Iran: implementation

Arash Bahamani, the editor of the daily Gylan Emroz, and two of his reporters, Babak Mehdizadeh and Sied Kohzad Esmaili, were convicted by a court in Rashat, in the northern province of Gilan, on 12 November. They are respectively sentenced to 16 and 4 months in prison.
They are convicted on various charges including insulting an imam.They have decided to appeal.
The three journalists spent several days custody in February after criticising President Ahmadinejad’s policy during a visit he made to the province.
Gylan Emroz was one of the first Iranian newspapers to reveal the existence of bird flu cases in the country.
Abolfazl Abedini Nasr of the weekly Bahar Khozestan is arrested 1r November in Ahwaz city. It is not known where he is being held.
Adnan Hasanpour began a hunger strike in protest against his death sentence.


The newspaper Etemad Melli says that the Iranian central bank has warned that rising money supply growth will further push up inflation.Last fiscal year, the inflation rate was 8.9 percent and it has increased to 15.8 percent.
In early November, the new governor of Iran's central bank warned over money supply growth urging measures to prevent a further rise in inflation.
The government's economic policies have been criticised for stoking inflation by ploughing windfall revenues from high oil prices into local infrastructure projects promised on provincial visits.
The government says that it is merely fulfilling Ahmadinejad's election promises of making ordinary people feel the benefits of oil wealth and that it has inflation under control.


The Iranian government is implementing a new plan to privatize state institutions as a prevention against monopolization.
The state seeks private partners to invest in and expand the mining sector.
Iran is the biggest zinc and lead bullion producer in the Middle East.
The annual zinc bullion production in Iran amounts to 150,000 tons, which is projected to escalate to five million tons in 18 years.


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: disturbing public opinion

This morning at 7.14 local time has an earthquake measuring 5.1 on the Richter scale has shaken the suburbs of Bandar-e Lengeh, province of Hormozgan.
Up till now no damage was reported.
This is the 2nd time this week, Iran is struck by a quake with a strenght of more then 5.0.


Lawyer Mostafa Daneshju is detained in Karaj on November 20, but the reason for his arrest has not been made clear, nor is it known where Daneshju is being held.
A collegue told that Daneshju had previously been sentenced to a prison term and lashes on charges of spreading lies and insulting officials.
He reportedly appealed against the sentence.
Daneshju also has been active in defending the rights of the Gonabadi order of dervishes and represented the case of a Sufi who had been attacked in Lorestan Province.



According to Jomhouriy Eslami has police general Ahmad Rouzbehani, head of the "Social Security Plan", told at a pressconference, that since the start of this plan, 4,800 hooligans have been detained, of which 30 have been sentenced to death.
He emphasized that the "Social Security Plan" will by no means be stopped, and with the people’s help and cooperation, those not yet detained will have been identified and will be arrested.

Newspaper Mehrnews reported that former MP Ahmad Shirzad will stand trial on Tuesday, December 4, on charges of ‘spreading lies with the intent to disturb public opinion, propaganda against the Islamic system, insulting slandering officials, etc.’.
Shirzad was previously sentenced to one-year in jail and fined Rls.500,000 in absentia by the court, but Shirzad’s attorney Abdulfattah Soltani had appealed his client’s case.


A conservative newspaper which normally is fully supportive of president Ahmadinejad, has a written editorial in which he is accused of behaving immorally towards his political rivals.
The criticism came a recent speech by Mr Ahmadinejad when he described people opposed to his nuclear programme as traitors and accused some senior former nuclear negotiators of spying for foreigners.
The newspaper wrote that he was using this tactic to discredit his political rivals prior to the parliamentary elections due early next year.


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: doubt

Maryam Hosseikhah, women's rights activist and member of the One Million Signatures Campaign Against Discriminatory Laws, was detained on November 18, on charge of undermining national security.
She is transferred to Tehran's Evin prison.
Authorities had told her one day earlier that she was being charged with "acting against Iran's national security" and publishing false information on the Women's Cultural Center and the One Million Signatures Campaign websites.


Turkey and Iran officials at the common border between the two countries have been cooperating to find seven Turkish citizens kidnapped earlier this month.
Since the incident occurred at the Iranian border, the Turkish Interior Minister has handed a diplomatic note to Iran.
There are doubts whether the incident is PKK-related or a tribal fight.






Iranian car maker Iran Khodro is planning to make a complaint against Peugeot over technical problems with Peugeot cars it manufactures under licence.
Many Peugeot 405's caught fire spontaneously.
Peugeot said the Iranian manufacturer made unauthorised modifications which are to blame for the incidents.
The parts involved in the incidents are the parts which were modified.



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: developments

In Gonbad, Golestan province is a man hanged in public.
The man, only named A.A. 29 year was convicted for murder.




An earthquake with a magnitude of 5.1 jolted the city of Qal'e Tal, Khuzestan province, early Tuesdaymorning.
The tremor was felt in the provincial capital Ahwaz and elsewhere.
Statemedia report some 20 children were hurt as they tried to run out of a school building.


Yesterday, the Iranian ambassador in The Netherlands told NOSTV that Abdullah al-Mansouri is in good health.
According to the ambassador al-Mansouri is imprisoned under suspection of involvement of bombattacks in Ahwaz/Khuzestan.
The ambassador says that proof of these accusations can be found on the internet.
He emphasized that the trial against al-Mansouri has started and that he has a lawyer, representing him.



Mehrnewsagency reported that Iran Minister of Justice,Gholam-Hossein Elham said that there are new developments in the case of Satoshi Nakamura.

He did not want to discuss this, saying that terrorists are unpredictable and therefore any information would harm the release process.





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: connectivity

Almost 3900 schools are to be connected to Iran's national internet network today in a ceremony attended by ministers of communications and information technology as well as education.
Once the project is fully implemented, educational and research centers can contribute to generating knowledge and making it available on the Iranian internet network.
As per statistics, about 60,000 schools out of 135,000 schools can be connected to the national Internet network. About 50,000 schools nationwide could be connected to the network by the end of Fourth Five-Year Economic Development Plan (2005-2010).
However this will happen once the government provides the budget.


Ghorban (Ramazan) Alipour and Mohammad Heydari Mehr, two representatives of the workers of Haft Tapeh Sugar Cane Company, who were arrested and detained last week, have now been taken to court.
They have been charged with “acting against national security”, “acting against the establishment” and “conducting interviews with foreign radios and media”.
Bail has been set for them but as they did not have the money ($50.000), they're still detained.


Supportcommitees for Iranian workers from unions all over the world released a statement in which they condemn the arrests of students, women, teachers, writers, workers and ethnic minorities and call for solidarity with these groups and call for a week of action in solidarity with the Iranian workers' movement, to be held from November 24 till November 30.


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: apples and oranges

November 17 the trial against French-Iranian filmmaker Mehrnoushe Solouki was held in Tehran.
The trial was held behind closed doors and took from 10AM to 1PM (local time). Her parents were not allowed to attend the trial.
She is accused of "intent of committing propaganda" against the Iranian regime.
The trial was adjourned to an undetermined date.

petition



After the harvest season 300 thousand tons of apples have been stored in the city of Oromieh, West-Azerbaijan province for balancing the domestic market of Iran.
The whole harvest was 700 thousand tons. One third of the province’s apples are attracted by the concentrate and juice industries annually.
This is because 60 units of industrial fruits units to be converted into juices are settled in this province.



Over 3,000 types of Iranian goods and products have found their way to the markets of 151 different countries.
According to the secretary of the non-oil exports development group of Eastern Azarbaijan province, this province ranks first among all Iranian provinces in exporting non-oil goods and commodities.


The last week ordered ban on the book of Gabriel Garcia Marquez has only provoked greater interest in the book.
Copies of the sold-out book were being sold on the black market for more than twice their list price.


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: to write about, or not

An appeal court in Sanandaj, Kurdistan province, reduced journalist Ako Kurdnasab’s sentence from three years to six months. The conviction on a spying charge was overturned, but the court upheld his conviction for “trying to overthrow the government by means of journalistic activities.”.
The journalist is detained since July 21 and has not been allowed any visits since his arrest.
Another Kurdish journalist Ejlal Ghavami of a weekly closed since 2004, Payam-e Mardom-e Kurdestan, is been held since 9 July, and sentenced to three years in prison for “inciting the population to revolt” and “activities against national security.”,
Meanwhile more than 160 Iranian journalists have signed a statement calling for the release of journalist Emadeddin Baghi,who was arrested October 14.
The signatories are to participate in a demonstration for his release, tomorrow in Tehran that has been organised by his family and friends.



Etemad newspaper reported Thursday that students have staged gatherings at six universities across the country this week against rising pressure from the authorities.
Students at provincial universities in Ahwaz, Isfahan, Shahroud and Sistan-Baluchestan staged demonstrations to criticise the climate prevailing in their academic institutions.
About 100 Amir Kabir students and professors on Monday cancelled classes and called on university officials to "use their authority to support and follow up the case of fellow student Massoumeh Mansouri. According to a report she is been kept in detention for an unnamed period, the report said, adding that the faculty had been looking for news about her situation "over the past 18 days without any result."
None of the demonstrations had been reported by official or semi-officiial media.


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: moratorium

In the city of Zahedan, Sistan-e-Baluchestan province is a man, Rostam Sepahi, known as Mola Moussa, hanged in prison.
He was convicted for armed trafficking of 274 kilos (600 pounds) of opium and carrying guns.



According to the website Iran Human Rights Mohammadreza Tork (18) was hanged November 15 in a prison in the city of Hamedan. He was convicted for a murder that was allegedly committed when he was 16 years old.
Mohammadreza is the seventh child executed in Iran this year.
Two others, who are believed to be in Mohammadreza’s family, were hanged right after. They are identified as Manuchehr Tork (30) and Safarali Waramzyaar (31).



Despite strong oppositions by United States, China and Iran, a United Nations General Assembly panel on Thursday passed a resolution calling for a moratorium on death penalty.
The resolution, supported by 87 states, was passed with 99 votes in favour, 52 votes against and 33 abstentions.
The vote came after a debate of two days.
The non-binding resolution states that the death penalty "undermines human dignity" and calls on all states which still maintain the death penalty "to establish a moratorium on executions with a view to abolishing the death penalty".


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: law and culture

In the city of Sahneh, Kermanshah province are two men hanged in public.
The men, Saeed Moradi and Hamid Fallahi are, according to ISNA, accused of armed robbery and murder.



The execution of Makvan Mouloodzadeh,who was sentenced to death for multiple counts of anal rape (ighab), allegedly committed when he was 13 years old, is halted by the Iranian Head of Justice, Ayatollah Seyed Mahmoud Hashemi Shahrudi.
The reasons are: the death sentence is in violation of Islamic teachings, the religious decrees of high-ranking Shiite clerics, and the law of the land.



The former Iranian nuclear negotiator Hossein Mousavian has been charged with passing classified information to foreigners, including the British Embassy.
Mousavian was briefly detained in May, again on suspicion of espionage.
The date of his trial is still unknown.



From November 23 till November 25 is the Iran Art Festival to be held in Den Haag.
All information on this website.
Three films by Iranian director Rakhshan Bani-Etemad will be screened.
Also art from designer Reza Abedini, painter Mehdi Hosseini and photographer Kurosh Adim will be shown. There will be lectures on Iranian art.
The festival is being held to introduce Iranian culture and contemporary art to Europeans.



Iran has banned the latest novel by writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez, "My Melancholy Whores".
Newsagency Fars reported that the initial publication of "Memories of My Melancholy Whores" was a bureaucratic error.
The first edition of around 5,000 copies, which hit bookshops three weeks ago, has already sold out.
The culture ministry refused to issue a permit for the reprinting of the book,and the official responsible for originally authorising the book's publication has been sacked.


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: confidence

Monday visited a representative of the Dutch government imprisoned Dutch-Iranian Abdullah al Mansouri for the first time.
He is in prison in Ahwaz City.
The visit lasted 45 minutes in presence of Iranian authorities.
Al Mansouri said that he is doing well under the circumstances.
Since his arrest in Syria in May 2006, this was the first time, a representative of Dutch government was allowed to visit Al Mansouri.






According to The Times, an Iranian member of parliament, Mohsen Yahyavi. told British MPs at the Inter-Parliamentary Union, a peace body, that homosexuals should be executed or tortured and possibly both.
The minutes, made at a gathering in May, describe the event.
Yahyavi explained that according to Islam gays and lesbianism were not permitted and he said that if homosexual activity is in private there is no problem, but those in overt activity should be executed.
He argued that homosexuality is against human nature and that humans are here to reproduce.


Heshmatollah Tabarzadi, the head of Iran's Democratic Front and the publisher of a now-banned weekly newspaper, "Payam-e Daneshjou-ye Basiji" is re-arrested by Iranian authorities.
He was released on parole after serving years of prison.
November 11 he had to report to a local court and was arrested there and taken to Tehran's Evin prison.
Tabarzadi claims that he has served his full sentence, but the authorities disagree, he told Radio Farda after he was released from jail last year.
Initially he was sentenced to 14 years' imprisonment, his sentence was later reduced by a higher court to 7 years.
According to a document he received from the prison last year called 'Proclamation On The Prisoner's Situation' all of the time he served during various detentions would mean that the current term would have ended on August 30, 2007.
But the Intelligence Ministry says that he still have six more years to serve.



Gholam-Hossein Nozari, nominee for the Oil Ministry and Ali-Akbar Mehrabian, nominee for the Ministry of Industries, have received votes of confidence to lead their ministries respectively.
Gholam-Hossein Nozari won by 217 votes to 20, nine lawmakers out of the 246 members present abstained.
Ali-Akbar Mehrabian won by 174 to 49 against, 18 votes abstained.
The vote of confidence session was held with the participation of President Ahmadinejad, First Vice-President Parviz Davoudi and nine cabinet ministers.



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: increased

The inflation rate stood at 16.2 percent in the last 12 months leading to Oct. 22, 2007.
The price index of consumer goods and utilities in urban areas in the Iranian calendar month of Mehr (from Sept. 23-Oct. 22) had a 1.5 percent increase compared to that of its previous month, and an 18.1 percent increase of the corresponding period in its preceding year.


The Iranian police has made a "vice-list", which includes makeup, un-Islamic dresses, hats, dvd's, drugs and alcohol.
The list is part of a police "moral crackdown" launched in April.
Police warns that they will deal seriously with everybody who is not behaving according to the list.
Boots, instead of ull length trousers will not be tolerated, also small headscarves are out - the scarf must cover a woman's head and neck completely.
Wearing decadent Western clothes and displaying signs and insignia of deviant groups is also prohibited.


In the city of Qom Iran's2nd women's university, Hazrate Ma'soumeh University, was opened.
Deputy Science, Research and Technology Minister Dr. Hassan Khaleqi said in his openingspeech that this university is providing greater possibilities for the Iranian women to achieve their deserved status, based on Islamic and Iranian norms.

The university is scheduled to admit 300 students next year in its six faculties.


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