Iran: letters and universities

The daily Iran reported that Wednesday two men were hanged in the city Jahorm. They were convicted of murder.
According to newsagency Fars are Wednesday three unindentified men hanged in Birjand, Khorasan Jonoubi province, convicted of smuggling.
Jomhuri Eslami reported that two men were hanged in Tonekabon convicted of murder.


This is a phrase of the letter (pdf) which the Dutch Ministry of Education wrote to universities in the Netherlands.
This letter was used by TU Twente and TU Eindhoven to justify the refusal of all Iranian students.


In daily NRC is an article,in which the university- actions are questioned.
Meanwhile an online petition is started.
Also the opinion-weblog NRC has written about this and here (pdf) is the letter with opinions of Iranians who work or study in the Netherlands.


A commenter on the weblog Onze man in Teheran cited a letter from Dutch Immigration Service IND:

" Wanneer er een melding binnenkomt of wanneer sprake is van een verzoek om advies voor studie voor iemand uit Iran en het gaat om een studie in disciplines, die op enigerlei wijze kunnen bijdragen aan de proliferatie van gevoelige nucleaire activiteiten van Iran of de ontwikkeling van nucleaire wapensystemen (bijvoorbeeld studie chemie, of lucht- en ruimtevaarttechniek), dan zal contact opgenomen moet worden met de onderwijsinstelling om te informeren of deze student toegelaten kan worden ingevolge de resolutie van de VN. Vervolgens is het aan de onderwijsinstelling om te besluiten of deze student nog tot de opleiding wordt toegelaten. Wanneer het verzoek om advies wordt ingetrokken wordt, zal er geen MVV worden afgegeven. Wanneer de onderwijsinstelling (in samenspraak met OC&W) oordeelt dat er geen reden is om de student te weigeren, dan bestaat er voor de IND ook geen reden om de mvv te weigeren."

The Clingendael Institute, knowledge center of international politics in the Netherlands, has found no reasons to exclude Iranians from study in the Netherlands.


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: dimensions

The human rights group led by Shirin Ebadi protested against the amputation of hands and feet in Iran.
The group said that this makes new dimensions in rights violations.
Punishments including flogging, amputation of fingers, hands and legs, stoning and execution existing in the penal laws contradict international human rights principles, but Iran's judiciary is allowed to employ such punishments under Islamic Sharia law.
The statement also says that these punishments are also in contradiction with the main objective of punishment, which is correcting criminals.


Turkey halted the gasflow to Greece. Greece says that gas imports from Russia will continue.
Iran cut off the gassupply to Turkey this week, shortly after Turkmenistan cut the gasflow to Iran.
Turkey's Prime Minister Erdogan says that Iran will resume the gassupply on Monday.


A group of American shia muslims visited several of Iran's historical and cultural sites.
They were invited by the Islamic International Foundation of Cooperation (IslamIFC) and also visited the city of Qom, where they spoke with the city's senior clerics.
The tourists expressed their enjoyment of the trip and asked the Iranian government to facilitate visas for others wanting to make similar visits.



Iran's President has inaugurated the strategic Firouzabad-Jam-Assaluyeh road.
This road connects the petrochemical hub of Assaluyeh to Shiraz, the provincial capital of Fars. This is resulting in significant savings in time (3.5 hours).
The new road, extending 240 kilometers, was constructed in two phases, the first of which, 70 kilometers in length, had been completed earlier by the Ministry of Oil in partnership with the Ministry of Roads and Transportation.
The total cost of the road amounted to more than $130 million.

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

The former singer of the band The Smiths, which broke up in 1987, Morrissey, wants to perform in Iran this summer. He wants to perform with local artists and Arab pop star Kazem al-Sahir.
His management is awaiting a formal response from Iran's Ministry Of Culture and Islamic Guidance.
His whole career Morrissey is known for his occasional controversial statements, like about the Iraq war and president Bush.



Extreme blizzards killed at least 28 people in Iran.
40.000 people were stuck on the roads and eight people froze to death.
Another 20 people were killed in road accidents.
Schools and government offices were forced to close in Tehran and other regions in northern Iran over the last two days. They will remain shut on Wednesday. According to IRNA the government announced that state offices and schools would probably be closed on Thursday too due to the drop in temperatures and gas pressure.
The cold and an unexpected cut in imports from Turkmenistan,causes problems in gassupply.
Statetelelevision said that the lowest temperature overnight was minus 24 degrees Celsius in Shahre Kord in Western Iran, while the capital Tehran registered minus seven degrees Celsius.


A delegation of Columbia University professors and deans of faculties plans to visit Iran. They want to officially apologize to Iranian President Ahmadinejad for the insulting speech Columbia University President Bollinger directed at Ahmadinejad during his visit on September 24.
Since the incident came criticism towards Bollinger from the faculties of history, anthropology, Middle Eastern studies, philosophy and Islamic studies.
Bollinger has warned the delegation that their trip to Iran should be a private visit and should not be undertaken as an official visit endorsed by the university.
A anonymous member of the delegation said that the delegation prepared its itinerary.
They also plan to visit Iranian universities in various cities and to hold talks with professors and students.


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: in cold weather

Turkey will ask Iran to restore the flow of natural gas to Turkey after it was cut off yesterday.
Iran blames the disruption on cold weather and a cut in Turkmen gas supplies.
Last week the flow from Iran had already fallen to 4-5 million cubic metres a day from an agreed 30 million.


Cold weather and heaviest snowfall in more than a decade has left at least 21 people dead in Iran.
Since Saturday, more then 22 inches of snow has fallen in northern and central Iran.
schools and government offices had to close and all domestic and international flights wer cancelled.
Authorities have urged citizens to reduce their high consumption of gas and to cancel unnecessary travel.
Snow has fallen in Kerman province, in western areas of the Lut Desert. The elders of a village say they have never seen nor heard of snow in that region.
Lut Desert is famed for having very harsh climatic conditions. Temperature can rise as high as 71 Celsius.
The snowfall would continue in the coming days.
Photo Press-tv



The questions to parliament by MP's Van Bommel and Leijten (SP) to the Ministers of Foreign Affairs Department,of Education, Culture and Science Department and of Justice Department, about refusal of Iranian students at UTwente are in Dutch and pdf.




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 parliament

Sunday are in the city of Arak two men hanged.
Former chief of police Abolfazl R was hanged in public on the scene of his crime.
December 2005 he stabbed a man to death and raped his fiancée.
The second man, Abolfazl M was hanged in prison. He was convicted of two murders.




Newsagency ISNA reported on Sunday that in the city of Zahedan, Sistan-e-Baluchistan province, the right hand and left foot of five criminals are amputated.
The men, identified as M.A. Jalali, A.B. Righi, A. Righi, A.R. Roudini and D. Pahlevan, were found guilty of "mohareb" (acting against God) and "corruption upon this Earth", for taking part in the robberies and taking hostages.
The report did not say whether the punishment was carried out in prison or in public.
Amputations are allowed under Iran's Islamic sharia law.


Leader Ayatollah Khamenei has pardoned up to 2,000 prisoners in Sistan-Baluchistan province.
The pardon did not include murderers, drug dealers, arms smugglers, and those with private plaintiffs.
The fines the pardoned prisoners had to pay added up to $13.32 million , they were to be released without having to pay up.
A hundred of the inmates pardoned by Ayatollah Khamenei are women.
With the release of the 2,000 convicts, the number of prisoners across the province will drop to around 4,000.


Saturday candidates started registering to stand in Iran's March parliamentary elections.
All candidates still have to be approved by the hardline unelected Guardians Council, which has the right to disqualify any candidate it deems to be insufficiently qualified.
In 2004 the Council disqualified more than 2,000 mainly reformist candidates, a move which moderates blamed for their losses.
The Guardians Council's spokesman pledged that the vetting process would be carried out as usual.
Key members of the Guardian Council are handpicked by Ali Khamenei.
Last month said the Guardian Council's chief, that any candidate determined by the committee to be disloyal to the principles of Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution would be barred from taking part in the polls.
Former president Khatami has said he will not run in the elections but has begun publicly supporting reformists.
The Guardian Council will announce a final list of approved candidates on March 5, leaving only a week for campaigning.

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: refusal

Saturday reported newsagency IRNA that on December 25 in Gorgan prison a man was hanged.
His name was not revealed. The man was a 53-year-old drugsdealer who was convicted for selling 5kg of opium.

The Iran correspondent for The Guardian, Robert Tait, has been expelled from Iran after nearly three years of reporting from the country.
Tait was forced to leave the country after the Iranian authorities declined to renew his visa and residence permit. The Iranian ministry gave no reason for its decision but said the newspaper was free to put forward another journalist as its correspondent in Iran.
In Press-TV Deputy for Foreign Press and Media of Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance Mohammad Nasser Haqiqat says that Robert Tait's visa has not been extended at the end of his mission to Tehran for his improper performance.


Iran's Foreign Ministry Spokesman has confirmed expulsion of a German diplomat from the country.
He explained that the Iranian officials had realized that the German diplomat was engaged in activities unrelated to his diplomatic mandate and was therefore asked to leave Tehran.
The name of the diplomat was not mentioned.
According to Deutsche Welle the German ministry of Foreign Affair only confirmed that a diplomat was expelled.


The daily NRC has a background article Studie kernenergie is geen optie voor iraanse student(Dutch) on the refusal of Iranian students at UTwente en TU Eindhoven.
It is still unclear whether this is a governmental move or a preemptive action from both universities.



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: protests

According to the spokesman of ALO are in Ahwaz-city (Ahwaz/Khuzestan) wednesday January 2nd, three Ahwazi, who were sentenced to death, executed.

Their names are:


Ahmad Moramazi (35) married with two children, nephew of Vice-President ( Dhr Rasoul Mazrae ) from ALO " Ahwaz Liberation Organization.
Sayed Abdulhousein Harbi Maashour city.
Housein Asakra (35) married with two children.

On the website from BAFS is a letter which was sent to Louise Arbour , High Commissioner for Human Rights, Office of the United Nations on behalf of the Ahwaz Human Rights Organisation.
This letter concerns torture and death of captured demonstrants who participated October 12 at a demonstration in Hamidieh. That day some 100 people were arrested and the Ministry of Information and Security has refused to divulge any information on their whereabouts or the charges against them.
Recently some of the families were told to collect the dead bodies of their family members from morgues in the barrack of Army 92nd Division. Reports say that they have died under torture. Their names are as follows:
Ghaiban Obidawi, a laborer, 38, married with four children. He was killed under torture. His fingers on both hands were cut off and his eyes were partially gouged out, according to his family. His body was found in Karoon River on December 12, 2007.
Ali Chaldawi, 23, food vendor. He was killed under torture in Ahwaz on 9 December 2007. His body was retrieved in an alleyway in Ahwaz City on 11 December 2007. His body has many visible torture marks, including severed fingers and the removal of toe nails.
Ali Obidawi (Sawari), 37, Taxi Driver, married with two children. There has been no trace of him since his arrest in October. The government has not provided any information despite his family's repeated requests. His family and other local sources believe he died under torture.
Yousef Lefteh-pour, 24, single, a resident of Hamidieh. There has been no trace of him since his arrest in October. The government has not provided any information despite his family's repeated requests. His family and other local sources believe he died under torture in Sepidar prison in Ahwaz.
Ahmad Saedi (Marmazi), truck driver, 23 , married. The Ministry of Information and Security has not provided any information to his family despite his family's repeated requests. His family and other local sources believe he died under torture.
Walid Naisi, 50, married with five children, a manager of the Eshragh Bookstore and Cultural Center in Ahwaz City. He was arrested along with some 50 employees of Eshragh in October 2007 on suspicion of selling Arabic literature . The Ministry of Information and Security has not provided any information to his family despite his family's repeated requests. His family and other local sources believe he died under torture.
Saleh Ameri (aka Ahmad Jazeyeri), former secretary general of Ahwaz Liberation Front, which was dissolved after 1979 Iranian revolution, is reportedly still undergoing severe torture in Ahwaz. He is 76 years old and has not been politically active for over 28 years.



Maryam Hosseinkhah and Jelveh Javaheri, internet journalists and woman's right activists are released from Evinprison.
They were released January 2nd, after their bail was reduced to some $5,000. Originally, a court in Tehran had demanded some $105,000 for Hosseinkhah’s bail and around $50,000 for Javaheri. While in prison they continued with their activities in support of women, but focused this time on female prisoners in Evin.They managed to collect and contribute 60 books to the women’s library at Evin prison. They also wrote about the condition of female prisoners and the impact of discriminatory laws and their contribution to women’s criminality and incarceration.
The news of their release (Farsi).



According to state broadcaster IRIB Iranian security forces killed five drug smugglers and seized 1,900 kg of narcotics.
The clash between Iranian forces and drug traffickers happened near the city of Jiroft on Thursday night, in the southeastern province of Kerman.



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: renewed?

In the city of Hamedan is on Thursday a man named Ali, 23-year-old hanged, guilty of torture and rape of a 12-year-old boy.
Daily Etemad Melli reported that the man and an acquaintance of the boy's family, who also is sentenced to death, tortured and sexually abused the boy for four days.



Raja Passenger Train Company wants to modernize the railways in Iran.
The lifespan of passenger trains currently stands at 25 years and this should be reduced to 15.
The company, affiliated to Islamic Republic of Iran Railways, has signed agreements to purchase new trains.
The company acquired 20 trainsets (Pardis train)(each trainset has six cars) from Siemens Company.
Also 30 railbus trains from South Korea are purchased. The first set of completely built imported trains will enter Iran next month and the rest will be assembled in the country.
Each set of the railbuses has 4 carriages.
The company has 1,600 carriages at present, 800 will be added in four years.

RUG Groningen does not refuse Iranian students.
The nuclear knowledge they could access to is also public to everybody.
RUG did not have use for new rules, because there were no Iranian applicants lately.
The head of communications said that he cannot think of RUG refusing students from a specific country and says that doing so interferes with the university's mission.
The daily De Volkskrant writes that the decision to exclude Iranian students is taken by UTwente and TU Eindhoven itself.
Eindhoven always was distant of Iranians, more specific all foreign students. The university only takes students from other universities with good connections to TUE.
The university now decided herself to let the AIVD decide wheter a student is refused or not. An AIVD spokesman said that this is out of the question. It is the university's responsibility to decide who is applicant.
UvA Amsterdam did not change the policy.The university was always on distance with foreign students, if only for financial reasons of students from exotic countries.
Nuclear technology is hardly a theme in UvA. A guarantee was never asked.

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: pressure

Iranian Student Correspondents' Association (ISCA) reported that Wednesday 7 men and 1 woman were hanged in Evin prison.
The men were all convicted for murder.
The woman, Raheleh Zamani, was convicted for murder and chopping her husband's body into pieces.
In Zahedin were two men hanged for trafficking 52,5 kg of heroin.

According to an AFP count compiled from press reports, at least 297 people were executed by Iran in the year 2007.
Human rights groups have accused Iran of excessive resort to the death penalty, but the authorities say capital punishment is an effective deterrent that is only used after an exhaustive judicial process.


The universitycouncil has in december wrote a letter to the university board with the recommendation to:
advice the presidium to make admittance of Iranian students depend on obtaining a visum for the Netherlands .
This recommendation is based on the letters appendix.
An important part of this appendix is information, given by phone by the Immigratie- en Naturalisatiedienst (IND)
"Dat er gekeken wordt of iemand al dan niet een visum kan krijgen om in Nederland te studeren. Hierbij kunnen Iraniërs zelfs een studie doen waarbij ze proliferatiegevoelige kennis opdoen. Bij een dergelijke situatie zal de AIVD alleen een background check doen op aanvrager. Als deze goedgekeurd wordt mag deze gewoon die studie doen."
(non official translation:To determine if a person is entitled to obtain a visum to study in the Netherlands. Iranians can even do studies with proliferation sensitive knowledge. In these cases the AIVD will do a background research on the applicant. If this is okayed, this person can do this study.)
The official university information for Iranian students is here.
All this is an outcome of resolution 1737 made by the Security Council in 2006. This resolution forbids to make nuclear technology available to Iran.
The Dutch Ministry of Education has together with the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs asked every university in the Netherlands to produce a list of " sensitive" studies, and to be careful in admitting Iranian students.
Both ministries urge there are no extra rules to fit.Also the IND denies so.
UT Twente reports that they were asked to by letter in October.


Press-tv reports that Iran will not extend the June 2008 deadline for Shell to sign a major gas deal to invest in two phases of the South Pars gasfield.
Managing Director of Iran's Pars Oil & Gas Company said that Shell has not officially called for an extension of the deadline of June 2008.
Shell and Spanish Repsol together were to sign a preliminary deal with Tehran to invest $10 billion to develop phases 13 and 14 of the South Pars project, but reportedly Shell hesitates, due to concerns about US pressure.
Iran has called on all companies interested in investing in the country's energy sector to submit their proposals by June.


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: slick, slippery

In the city of Qom are three men hanged in public.
They were convicted of drugssmuggle.
According to a judiciary official of Qom the men have been jailed for drugsrelated offences before and were recidivists.



Reports from Iran say a person has been arrested for spreading a rumour that Russian leader Putin would be assassinated during his visit in October to Tehran.
Newsagency Fars reports that the individual was an employee of a telecommunication company an was arrested last week.


The immediate reason for banning Iranian students at Dutch Technical Universities is, according to those universities, the new UN resolution, made last month against Iran.
The Dutch ministries of Foreign Affairs and Education wrote a guarantee for universities to ensure that Iranians working or studying in universities would not have access to nuclear technology information.
Universities say that this guarantee must be presented to the Immigratie- en Naturalisatiedienst (IND). Otherwise, no visa is given. The IND mentions that this measure is not originally from her department.
UT Twente refused three Iranian students.
A spokesman for TU Delft said to daily Trouw that Iranian students are welcome and that the university fits all regulations to admit Iranian students.
TU Eindhoven says that not she, the university, but the government is to blame for banning students.


An aeroplane from Iran Air skidded off the runway after part of its wing caught fire on take-off from Tehran Mehrabad airport on Wednesday.
According to an airport official nobody got hurt, but newsagency Fars said some passengers suffered superficial injuries and respiration problems.
The plane was carrying 100 passengers and on its way from Tehran to Shiraz in the south.



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: achieve

Yesterday are in Zahedan, Sistan-e-Baluchestan province, two men gehanged.
IRNA reported that the men were convicted of buying, delivering and keeping 59 kg of drugs.



This weekend Turkmenistan stopped daily exports of gas to Iran.
Fars newsagency reported that this was due to repairs and maintenance. Others say this is because Turkmenistan seeks higher gas price.
Turkmenistan daily exports up to 23 million cubic metres of gas to Iran. It represents about 5 percent of Iran's consumption.
As a result of the Turkmen supply cut and due to persisting cold weather across the country and reduced pressure in the pipelines, Iranian gasflow to Turkey fell sharply from 20 million cubic meters a day to 4 á 5 cubic meters a day.
The head public relations of the National Iranian Gas Company, Ghanbari said that by the end of the week, gas exports from Turkmenistan to Iran would be restored.



15 months after birth of Iran's first cloned sheep, a male sheep, the animal is fine.
The sheep, called Royana is born September 30, 2006 in Isfahan and frolicks among a flock of normal sheep.
The head of Royan Research Institute in Isfahan told Reuters that the sheep is a successful scientific achievement and they are all proud of it.
Iranian researchers would never try to clone a human being because it's banned and it is neither ethical nor allowed under Iran laws.
The sheep is the result of many years of efforts in stem cell research.
Photo Iranfocus-AP


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