Iran: approval

Alireza Afshar, head of election headquarters, told ISNA that out of 7,200 registered candidates, about 3,000 had intelligence (ministry) and judiciary records.
This is more than at the previous parliamentary election, when there were about 1,800 who had records.
He did not elaborate, but candidates in past votes in a similar position were barred.
The comment suggests these hopefuls would not even be reviewed by the Guardian Council, which vets candidates .


A senior official said the health budget for the next Iranian year (to start on March 20) will increase by 35 percent.
He said that more than 5,700 billion rials will be set aside for completing the construction of hospitals and purchasing new medical equipment next year.
The credit allocated to the insurance and retirement sectors for the next year will also increase by 23.5 percent.
He said the health budget, which was presented to the parliament last week, should be ratified by the Majlis Health Commission.


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: views

IRNA reported that police in the city of Isfahan detained a large number of mourners for mutilating themselves.
Ashura is an islamic day where shi'ites mourn the dead of Mohammeds grandson Imam Hussein by punishing themselves by hitting on their heads.
According to police these people were disturbing the public order and used daggers as well as slashing their shoulders with spiked chains.




Central Bank of Iran has reported the positive development of greater tax revenues .
Financing government expenditure with taxes is a sign of improvement in government operational efficiency and according to the president is making the government less dependant on oil revenues.
Since March 2007, the tax contribution to government budget has jumped from 37.9 percent to 45 percent. The government wants to increase the figure to 50 percent next year.



According to the Iranian tourism office the number of foreign tourist arrivals grew by 25 percent during 2007.
Chief of Iran Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization (ICHHTO) announced that the customs department reported that 1.5 million tourists visited Iran in the year 2007.
Iran's 20-Year Vision document projects investments of more than $32 billion in the country's tourism sector.




Supreme Leader ayatollah Kamenei has backed Iranian parliament in a dispute with president Ahmadinejad. He had objected to several measures adopted by MPs.
The parliament overturned his decision to dissolve several institutions, including the Monetary and Credit Council as well as his abolition of summer time in Iran.
In a letter to speaker of parliament Gholam Ali Hadad Adel, Kamenei wrote that
"Laws adopted through the process defined by the constitution must be respected by all organs,".
Hadad Adel had sought the opinion of the supreme leader, who has the final say on all key policy issues, after receiving Ahmadinejad's complaint.


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: sweet and sour

An earthquake measuring 4.7 on the Richter scale jolted the city of Yazd late Saturdaynight.
No damage to people or property was reported.



Iranian sugar import tariffs will double.
Import tariffs of sugar will increase from 10 to 20 percent to support domestic producers with its most severe crisis in the past 110 years.
Experts say that the price of sugar in the market is about 2,000 rials less than factories’ cost price.
As a result, sugar mills have been unable to repay their debts to banks and farmers.
Over 150 parliamentarians wrote a letter to President Ahmadinejad ten days ago, calling for solving the challenges facing the industry.



The US has refused visas for Iran's national cycling team .
The cyclists were to attend the Los Angeles World Cup as a preliminary qualifier for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.


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: the "safety"of custody

Reuters India reports that jailed journalist and human rights activist Emadeddin Baghi is released on parole. Baghi was sentenced to one year in prison.
Newsagency ISNA wrote Friday that he was released on health grounds.
Baghi was transferred to a Tehran hospital last month after heart trouble in jail and later returned to jail.
His lawyer told ISNA that because of his heart problem, Baghi was released on parole and he was transferred to a Tehran hospital for treatment

Human Rights Watch released a press statement in which she Iranian authorities should investigate the sudden deaths of two people while in custody in northwestern Iran.
Ebrahim Lotfallahi,27, died between January 9 and January 15 in Sanandaj.
January 6 he was arrested, three days later he told his brother that he was well and would be released.
January 15, authorities told the family that he committed suicide and that they buried him.
The family was not allowed to see the body and the authorities covered the grave with concrete.
The family plans to ask the authorities to exhume the body for a forensic determination of the cause of death.
The second case is Zahra Bani Yaghoub, 27, who was arrested by moral police on October 12 in a park in Hamedan and who, according to authorities committed suicide in custody.
According to her brother, he spoke telephonically to her 30 minutes before the reported deathtime and she seemed fine.
Her family says her body was bruised and calls for an autopsy.
Shirin Ebadi represents the family in their lawsuit against the officials responsible for her arrest and detention.

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: gone

Ebrahim Lotfollahi a student activist from Payam Nour University in Sanandaj, Kurdistan province, died in a detentioncenter of the Iranian intelligence ministry.
His parents, who saw him for the last time after his arrest on Wednesday last week told that he showed evident signs of torture.
Two weeks ago he was arrested.



Filmmaker Mehrnoushe Solouki has been acquitted and left Iran January 18.
She flew to Paris and rest several days in France before going to Canada.
Consult the website www.freesolouki.org/ for coming details.





The American State Department asked Iran again to find out what happened to Robert Levinson who went missing March 2007 and has not been heard from since.
In December hif wife visited Iran in an attempt to find out what happened.
She says that he had checked out of his hotel on Kish Island and caught a taxi to the nearby airport.
After this nothing is known, but she still believes her husband is in Iran because his name has not shown up on any flight manifests of planes leaving the country.


The World Organisation for Animal Health said yesterday that Iran has reported an outbreak of 14 cases of H5N1 bird flu.
According to reports 14 birds were infected and that another 475 were destroyed.
The outbreak was in Mazandaran province on the Caspian Sea.
The report said investigations are under way to trace the source of the infection and its probable spread.


In Iran there are childoffenders, still on death row.

Children are being hanged to death.
A child will be hanged to death.
Poster amnesty.

Iran: humanitarian

Despite the appeals of the international community and a large number of international human rights organizations, Iran executed this week in Karoon prison in Ahwaz City four political activists:
Ahmad Marmazi, Abdolhussein Harabii, Hussein Asakereh, en Mehdi Haidari.




During the funeral of Mehdi Haidari in the Seyed-ol-Shohada Mosque in Shilingaba, agents of the Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) arrested 150 to 200 people, there are a number of juveniles among the detainees.
The Iranian Human Rights Activist Group (IHRG) has announced the names of 102 detainees:

Sheikh Abuhasan,
Mohsen Abidawi (45 years old),
Karim Ahmadi (28),
Ebrahim Bawi (poet),
Ali Abed Bedawi,
Muhammad Darisawi,
Qasem Daghaghle (18),
Rahim Daghaghle (16),
Ahmad Daghaghle,
Morteza Daghaghle,
Mahmud Daghaghle,
Abdulreza Daghaghle,
Musa Daghaghle,
Muhammad Daghaghle,
Saeed Dahani,
Musa Dahimi,
Musa Dahimi (Abu Auwan),
Jafar Dahimi,
Sadik Dahimi,
Maki Duraghi,
Habib Duragi,
Jafar Duragi,
Seyed Ebrahim,
Abbas Eshghi (famous singer/entertainer in Ahwaz),
Khaled Halafi,
Hussein Heidari,
Khaled Halafi,
Abu Hassan (Poet),
Amer Heidari,
Kazem Heydari,
Jaber Hamidi (20),
Jawas Heydari (Poet),
Hamid Heydari Abumajud (Poet),
Kamal Heydari (Lawyer),
Ahmad Heydari,
Adnan Heydari,
Jawad Heydari,
Jamil Heydari,
Saeed Heydari,
Amir Heydari,
Muhammad Jasem Batrani,
Qasem Jalili,
Qasem Jalili,
Ahmad Khaledian (16),
Yusef Khaledian (17),
Ramaden Khasergi,
Ahmad Majdam (18),
Majid Majdam,
Saeed Majdam,
Seyed Tofiq Musawi,
Seyed Muhammad Musawi,
Seyed Dahayi Musai,
Saeed Muhammad,
Seyed Ali Musawi,
Seyed Ebrahim Musawi,
Jasem Mahawi,
Ebrahim Manesh Dawi (17),
Yaser Naseri (18),
Ramadan Nawabsari,
Qader Neysi,
Aqil Neysi,
Ali Neysi,
Qasem Neysi,
Yasin Neysi,
Hussein Neysi,
Mehdi Abu Saleh,
Mehdi Abu Saleh,
Abdolzahra Sawar(18),
Musa Dahimi (Sawari )(26),
Fadel Sharifi,
Salem Shakhi,
Ali Sawari,
Hussein Sawari,
Seyad Jume Sawari (Poet),
Khaled Sawari (30),
khalil Sawari (19),
Reza Sawari,
Feysal Sawari,
Rahim Sawari,
Kaleld Sawari,
Rasul Sawari,
Saeed Sawaedi,
Sattar Sayahi Abu Sarwar (Poet) (30),

Mustafa Muhammad Sawari,
Hashem Sayyahi,
Hassan Saeedi,
Ahmad Shamusi (Lawyer),
Khaled Sayahi,
Jamal Sayahi,
Khaled Sayahi,
Muhammad Sayahi,
Hassan Saeedi,
Seyed Nasser Al Seyyed,
Abu Shoja (Poet),
Jafar Soidi (Dahimi) (13),
Qazi Tamimi,
Seyed Ebrahim Yaseri,
Seyed Naji Yaser,
Seyed Fuad Yaseri,
Muhammad Amer Ziadat (Poet),
Mazid Zargani,
Sayed Naser al Sayed


In the 12 months prior to the most recent executions, at least 19 Ahwazi-Arab activists have been publicly hanged.
The following persons,
Zamal Bawi, Faleh al-Mansouri, Said Saki, Rasoul Mazrea are according to human rights organizations, familymembers and Musa Pirbani, Khuzestan(Ahwaz)'s prosecutor, in danger of imminent execution.



Iran temporarily stopped the expulsion of illegal Afghans because of winter, for "humanitarian reasons".
Iran signed an agreement with Kabul that the return of registered Afghan refugees from Iran must be voluntary and conducted in a safe and dignified way.
According to Press-tv about 2.5 million Afghans live in Iran, of whom 1.5 million, mostly young men, lack legal documentation to live in the country and are looking for work.
In the past two weeks Iran expelled 9000 illegal Afghans.
Iranian authorities this month warned Afghans without documents that they faced arrest and detention for up to five years if they did not leave.


According to reports in Iranian media, faulty gas heaters have been blamed for 89 deaths.
Most of the victims died in their sleep after inhaling carbon monoxide gas from badly installed or damaged gas heaters.Others are frozen to death.
Iran is experiencing its coldest winter for 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: naming

According to his lawyer, the deathsentence of Amir Amrolahi, 18 year old, has been brought to the attention of the Head of the Judiciary and the execution order sent to be carried out.
He is sentenced to death for allegedly stabbing to death another boy during a row.
Among other things his lawyer says that the victims injuries were not fatal by nature, but that he died due to the loss of blood because it took at least 30 minutes before he got medical attention.
Because these and other errors he requested a correction of the verdict.
Two other boys, Rahim Ahmadi and Mohammadreza Haddadi are also sentenced to death for crimes they committed at the age of 16.


During the month December 2007 seven urgent calls are made by Stop child executions in Iran.
The names are Ali Mahin-Torabi, Mohammad Latif, Delara Darabi, Hossein Haghi, Behnood, Ali Saeed Jazee.
The complete list of children sentenced to death, can be found here.


Three managers of state gas company are sentenced to 10 years in jail and 74 lashes each for taking bribes totalling $2.45 million.
Judiciary spokesman Alireza Jamshidi said the three unnamed officials were also fined 8 billion rials each.
The contractors who paid the bribes were jailed for three years.



A group of Iranian students and staffmembers in the Netherlands has in answer to the letter (pdf Dutch) of the Ministry of Education, made up a petition in which they call upon the Dutch government, particularly Minister Plasterk, to reconsider this decision, so that categorical exclusion of Iranian students and academics will no longer be applied, and that academic freedom will remain preserved.
the petition


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: progress

Amnesty International called on Iranian authorities to abolish executions by stoning.
In a report titled "Iran: End executions by stoning", Amnesty highlighted the cases of nine women and two men who are at risk of being stoned to death.
Amnesty also called on the Islamic republic to respect a moratorium on it that was imposed by the head of Iran's judiciary in 2002.
She also mentioned in the report that the 2002 moratorium was broken in the last two years.


National Petrochemical Company (NPC) Monday announced that two petrochemical projects have started experimental production and four will be ready soon.
The third ammonia project of Razi Petrochemical Complex with a 99.4 percent progress and the urea and ammonia project of Kermanshah Petrochemical Complex with a 99.79 percent progress are at the experimental production stage.
Arya Sasol Petrochemical Complex (Olefin 9) and Jam Petrochemical Complex (Olefin 10) projects in Assaluyeh will start work soon.
In Mahshahr Special Economic Petrochemical Zone are Karun Petrochemical Complex’s and Laleh Petrochemical Complex’s almost exploitable.
According to NPC 12 petrochemical projects across the country have progressed over 90 percent.



The head of Iranian parliamentary energy committee, according to IRNA that said that the Islamic republic is going to file an official complaint against Turkmenistan in court for cutting gas supplies.
He said that although Iran has not yet officially submitted a complaint, it is going to do so, adding that Turkmenistan, which has cited technical problems for the halt, wanted to double the price.
Turkmenistan's foreign ministry said yesterday that payment problems with Iran and repairs were the cause of the gascut.
Iranian government said as Turkmenistan has cited technical problems for halting gas exports to Iran, linking the issue to bill payments contradicts the agreement and good neighbourly relations and that it is regrettable and Iran was ready to help with the repairs.
Several MPs have criticised the Iranian government for its handling of the crisis, which has seen dozens of factories shut and left people in both cities and remote villages with little or no heating.


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: the reason is

IRNA reported that Iran bans all bird hunting in Khuzestan to prevent the possible outbreak of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu.
According to a statement published by Khuzestan's Environment Organisation office, there hasn't been a case yet but they want to to minimize the risk of spread of avian influenza.
Thousands of migratory geese, ducks and other wildfowl yearly heading the province, for the winter.
The surrounding countries have all reported deaths from the H5N1 virus.


The transport ministry replaced the director general of Tehran’s international airport.
This was announced yesterday on the ministries website.
Statetelevision broadcasted that the dismissal was linked to the travel chaos at the new Imam Khomeini International Airport (IKIA) during the record low temperatures.
According to bad weather hundreds of passengers stranded on the airport.
Many passengers had to wait 72 hours before boarding their planes.
The IKIA airport was obviously not prepared.


Turkmenistan has insisted it cut gas to Iran 12 days ago because of a technical fault with the export pipeline and Iran's failure to pay for supplies.The Turkmenistan Ministry of Foreign Affairs said this.
Earlier informed sources had told Press TV that Turkmenistan demanded Iran to raise the price the country paid for gas.


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: probe

On the weblog onderwijsethiek, Wes Holleman criticized the letter pdf (Dutch) of the Dutch Ministry of Education and reaction of Dutch universities.




The Iranian Election Inquiry Headquarters started the inquiries to the 6.946 names they received for the parliament election.
Interior Minister Pourmohammadi said Saturday that 7200 people have registered and that 590 of the candidates, are women.
Five of the 290 parliament seats are dedicated to non-Muslim minorities including Zoroastrians, Jews, Assyrians and Armenians. 17 candidates registered for these.
According to the Minister 43 million Iranians are over 18 and are therefore eligible to vote.


The government of Turkmenistan has demanded an increase in the price of its gas exports.
One day after the visit of an Iranian delegation to talk about the importance of keeping the commitments stipulated in the 25-year agreement between the two countries and holding talks on any revision of the price, Turkmenistan cut the gasflow to Iran.
The reasons were technical problems and repairs to the installations and they implicitly called for the cancellation of the agreement, which covers a period up to 2024.
Turkmenistan wants to increase the price to $140 per 1,000 cubic meters. Iran agrees with the price rise on condition that the Turkmen side agrees to increase the volume of its gas exports to Iran.




Press-tv reported that head of Iran-China Joint Chamber of Commerce says that sanctions imposed by four Chinese banks have been lifted following consultation.
Originally, 10 Chinese banks had imposed sanctions against Iran.
After these successful negotiations, two more delegations will go to China to review and discuss an end to sanctions by the remaining six banks.



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: allowed

Two men, Tayeb and Yazdan found guilty of rape, are sentenced to 100lashes each before being cast off a cliff.
The sentence has been confirmed by the Supreme Court.
Iranian human rights activist and lawyer Mohammad Ali Dadkha says that although Iranian jurisprudence allows alternative punishments to those prescribed by Islamic law, many judges ignore this.
In recent weeks Iranian courts sentenced several people to punishments that had been in abeyance.


Last year the incidence of AIDS has doubled in the holy Shia city of Qom.
The director of the city's health centre says that the great share of the newly infected have contracted the HIV virus, not through using infected syringes, but through unprotected sexual relations.
Last year the number of those affected by AIDS in Qom has risen from 177 to 324.
Forty per cent of those infected are students from the theological colleges in Qom.


Local police commander in Sistan-Baluchestan province, said security forces launched a successful attack on a terrorist cell.
A number of the terrorists are killed, others detained. They hatched a plot to assassinate prominent clerics in the provincial town of Khash.
He said that plots are aimed at provoking ethnic and sectarian clashes in the province.
The minority of the population in Sistan-e-Baluchistan , fourty percent, is sunnimuslim.
Last month police disbanded another terrorist group.


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