Iran: pattern

This morning are 8 men are executed by hanging in Evinprison in Tehran.
Kiarash (32) convicted of murder in 2005, Alireza (28) convicted of murder and robbery, Abdolmajid (34) convicted of rape in 2001, Ali Akbar convicted of murder, Mohammad (27) convicted of murder in 2001, Farhad (31) convicted of murder and two cousins Ali and Ali convicted of rape in 2005.
The execution of Behnood Shojaee, Mohammad Fadaei and Davoud Mahdoor was postponed.
In the prison of Sanandaj, Kurdistan province, are June 10, 2 men hanged.
Mohammad Hassanzadeh, 17 is hanged for a crime he committed when he was 14 years old.
Rahim Pashabadi, 60 is hanged convicted of murder.


The execution of Mohammad Fadaie and Behnoud Shojaee, who should be executed June 11, is one month postponed by Iran's judiciary chief Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi .
A judiciary official said that in this month the convicts can try to find an agreement with the victims' families.
The stays of execution came after the top UN human rights official, Louise Arbour, asked Iran to keep the also by Iran undersigned international conventions which "prohibit the death penalty for juvenile offenders."
Shojaie and Fadaie were among the four named by Arbour.
The other two were Saeed Jaziie and Behnam Zareh.
According to the judiciary official, Jazie was not in the original executionlist, because his execution is scheduled for June 25.



Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi has published a book on legal structures in Iran and refugees.
She hopes it will encourage other human rights activists in the Islamic world to work for the legal protection of refugees.
"Refugee Rights in Iran" is the outcome of a long collaboration between Ebadi and UNHCR in Iran.
An initial Farsi-language version was produced with cooperation from UNHCR in 1994, and used for years as handbook by the UN refugee agency, is revised by Ebadi and translated into English, donating her rights from it to UNHCR for the benefit of Afghan and Iraqi refugee children.


Mohsen Namvar, 44, a christian leader from a housechurch was arrested May 31 in Tehran.Authorities did not provide any reason for his arrest.
Personal belongings, like a computer, cd's, books and money were confiscated.
His location remains unknown.
His arrest came after arrests of several christians in Amol, 80 miles northeast of Tehran, releasing them over the following weeks.
According to reports these arrests always follows a customary pattern, authorities put them in jail for a few weeks and beat them in an attempt to get information about other converts.
Namvar had been arrested in 2007 for baptizing converts to christianity.
He was severely abused and they told him he would die if he keeps his house open for church.


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: responsibility

Dutch Foreign Minister Verhagen answered the questions from the member of parliament Peters(GroenLinks) in the case of Dutch citizen Abdullah Al Mansouri, who is detained in Iran.
(Due to the fact this is a governmental letter and I am no translator, the language is in Dutch).



Vraag 1
Is het waar dat de onderminister van Buitenlandse Zaken van Iran kortgeleden bij u op bezoek is geweest?

Antwoord
Ja.

Vraag 2
Wat is tijdens dit bezoek besproken? Is de rechtzaak tegen Al Mansouri besproken? Is tijdens het gesprek het vonnis aangekondigd tegen Al Mansouri en de termijn waarop dit bekend gemaakt wordt? Is het vonnis inmiddels bekend?

Vraag 3
Heeft u de wens van de Kamer overgebracht dat Al Mansouri consulaire bijstand krijgt en dat een vertegenwoordiger van de Nederlandse ambassade bij het proces aanwezig is?

Antwoord
In het gesprek met de Iraanse onderminister van Buitenlandse Zaken Safari op 11 maart 2008 zijn van de zijde van de regering ondermeer de zorgen uiteengezet met betrekking tot het nucleaire programma van Iran, de Iraanse opstelling in de regio en de mensenrechtensituatie. De zaak met betrekking tot de heer Al Mansouri is eveneens besproken, waarbij is aangedrongen informatie te blijven delen over het welzijn van de heer Al Mansouri en de procesgang, zodat een vertegenwoordiger van de Nederlandse ambassade in de gelegenheid wordt gesteld om openbare rechtszittingen te kunnen bijwonen. De onderminister gaf aan dat de heer Al Mansouri in goede gezondheid verkeert, een vonnis op korte termijn verwachtbaar is en dat Nederland hierover zal worden geïnformeerd. Tijdens eerdere besprekingen met de Iraanse autoriteiten gaven deze aan dat de heer Al Mansouri beroep zal mogen aantekenen tegen een vonnis. Een complicatie is dat de heer Al Mansouri eveneens de Iraanse nationaliteit bezit en Iran om die reden geen consulaire bijstand van Nederland toestaat.

Vraag 4
Wat heeft u sindsdien ondernomen richting de Iraanse autoriteiten en de Iraanse ambassadeur om meer helderheid te krijgen over de precieze aanklacht tegen Al Mansouri?

Vraag 5
Wat bent u van plan te doen om de druk op Iran verder op te voeren en de veiligheid van Al Mansouri als Nederlands staatsburger te garanderen, gezien het feit dat het 16 mei aanstaande twee jaar geleden is dat Al Mansouri aan Iran is uitgeleverd?

Antwoord
De heer Al Mansouri wordt beschuldigd van terroristische activiteiten. Recentelijk heeft het EU-voorzitterschap namens de EU-lidstaten de Iraanse autoriteiten opgeroepen volledige informatie te verstrekken over de procesgang. Op 7 mei jl. is op hoog ambtelijk niveau bij de Iraanse ambassadeur in Nederland eveneens aangedrongen op het verstrekken van informatie over het welzijn van de heer Al Mansouri en de procesgang. De Nederlandse regering zal deze zaak nauwgezet blijven volgen en de Iraanse autoriteiten zolang als nodig blijven wijzen op hun verantwoordelijkheden.

Vraag 6
Bent u bereid deze vragen vóór 16 mei a.s. te beantwoorden?

Antwoord
Helaas is dat niet mogelijk gebleken.

Abdullah Al Mansouri's son Adnan was very disappointed of the outcome.
He wrote that everything the Minister wrote is already known and that it is a pity and an outrage that this seems to be everything the Dutch government is capable of doing for one of her citizens.


The newspaper Etemad reports that Wednesday in the prison of Tehran 11 people are scheduled to be executed by hanging.
Among them are three childoffenders Behnood Shojaee, Mohammad Fadaei en Saeed Jazee (Jazi).
They have been transferred from the Rajaee Shahr prison (Gohardasht) to the solitary confinements in the Evin prison where hangings normally take place.
Human rights organizations call upon Iran to halt the executions.


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: costly

The newspaper Jomhouri reports that in the prison of the city of Bojnourd, North Khorasan province a man is hanged.
He was convicted to death for buying and trafficking four kilogrammes of crystal methamphetamine.



Global Voices Online report that update several Iranian bloggers write that
Abbas Palizdar, a judicial investigator accused senior ayatollahs and officials of corruption.
This is the first time in the history of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Blog of RSO (fa).



According to the Central Bank of Iran, the inflation rate for the past month was 25.3%, this is an increase of 1.7% compared to last month.
Strong domestic demand for consumer goods, surging food prices, and high housing costs are causing the increasing inflation.


The foreign deposits of Iran are $35 billion, while its obligations amount to $25 billion.
This reported the Bank for International Settlements, BIS, located in Basel, Switzerland.
The deposits in foreign banks increased by $3.6 billion in 2007 compared to the previous year.
The obligations increased with $700,000 during that period.
The positive balance of Iran's foreign exchange transactions at banks and other financial institutions was $9.43 billion at the end of 2007.



A Tehran province governor general deputy in charge of security said that the bomb which exploded in Tehran, May 26, was made by a saboteur.
The carbomb caused damage to nearby buildings but no deaths.
According to the newspaper Siasat-e Rouz the official said that those behind this action only wanted to showoff and that the Islamic revolution has always been threatened by enemies with ill intentions.

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: compete

The Iranian caretaker Interior Minister said that owners of luxury brands can from June 21 only buy the higher-priced petrol.
Iran introduced a gasrationingsystem in June 2007 where every carowner gets 120 liter cheap heavily-subsidised gasoline per month.
Also they can buy gasoline for 5000 rials(0,34 euro) per liter.
Starting June 21 this price also rices to 5400 rials(0,37 euro) per liter.
The new rules apply to Iranian-produced cars with 2,000 cubic-centrimetre (cc) engines or more and imported cars of 1,300 cc.
He said that these are expensive cars that only rich people can buy and they include brands such as BMW, Mercedes and Toyota.


Iran will participate in the first edition of the Asian Beach Games to be held in Bali, Indonesia, from October 18 to 26.
According to Iran’s Olympic Committee’s Secretary General Iran will participate in the tournament in nine events, namely soccer, volleyball, handball, sepaktakra(beachvolley-en), jet skiing, bodybuilding, sailing, marathon swimming, and triathlon.
45,000 athletes from 45 countries, including China, Iran, South Korea, Japan, and Jordan, are expected to compete in 17 sports.
The Asian Beach Games is a multi-sport event held every two years.
2010 in Oman, then in 2012 in China, in 2014 in the Philippines, and in 2016 in Thailand.


Iran's national soccerteam has defeated the United Arab Emirates at the 2010 World Cup qualifiers with 1-0.
Midfielder Fereidoun Zandi scored the winner in the 9th minute, after a Mas'ud Shojaee through pass inside the 18-yard-box.
The UAE appealed for offside, but the referee rejected this.
The UAE mostly dominated throughout the match,but they did not succeed in scoring a countergoal.
Iran now stands atop group five with six points followed by UAE and Syria on five.
Syria will take on Kuwait on June 8.



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: price/prize

Iran will build 7 oilrefineries to end gasoline-imports.
The director of National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company said that the construction of seven refineries has started with the investment of 15 billion euro.
All seven refineries would begin operations by 2012.
The refineries will increase capacity by more than 1.5 million barrels per day and end gasoline imports.


The Russian energycompany Gazprom will invest more than 200 million dollars in the construction of the Iran-Armenia gas pipeline.
When the 140-km pipeline is completed, it will provide Armenia with an alternative to the gas it now imports from Russia.
For each cubic meter of Iranian gas, Armenia is scheduled to return 3 kilowatt hours of electric energy to Iran.


The Iranian Health Minister said that Iran will award a $15,000 prize to the best and most effective person who campaigns against use of tobacco worldwide.
Fars newsagency said that the Minister said so at a speech at Tehran Cardiac Center and that the prize, named after Mirza Shirazi, will be awarded every year in the annual meeting of World Health Organization (WHO), which is held in Geneva in May.
He emphasized that the prize is symbolic of the campaign against tobacco use worldwide to show how dangerous cigarettes are for health.
Tobacco use directly kills 80,000 people in Iran every year.
Warning images will be labeled on cigarette packs all over the country in six months.


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: report

Human Rights Watch has published a statement that cleric Ayatollah Kazemi Boroujerdi, journalist and activist Mohammad-Sadiq Kaboudvand, and prominent human rights defender Emad Baghi are in poor health and urgently require specialist medical attention.
All three men are imprisoned in section 209 of Evin prison.
Baghi had a heart attack on May 11 and Kaboudvand had a stroke on May 19, while Boroujerdi suffers from a range of ailments, including Parkinson’s disease, diabetes, and heart disease.
Under the UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, prisoners who require specialist treatment should be transferred to specialized institutions or to civil hospitals.

Fars newsagency reported that at clashes near Haj Omran and Piranshar 12 terrorists and 4 policemen were killed.
The fights took place at infiltrations from North-Iraq to West-Azerbaijan.
A West Azerbaijan police information officer told this, but revealed no further details.



The Iranian Ministry of Information announced that it had arrested 11 members of a terrorist group over a deadly shooting on a student bus tour in Khuzestan, nearly 2 months ago.
At this attack a cleric was killed and seven other people were wounded.
The students were on a trip to commemorate the 8-years of Iran-Iraq war.
According to the Ministry they succeeded in linking the terrorists mercenary bands to foreigners in a number of operations.
Documents obtained in previous cases have proved that Britain and the United States have both supporting rebels, mainly those in sensitive border areas.


The ALO reported that the "Ahwazi National Resistance Movement" has claimed responsibility for the attack of June 2 on a army patrol near Hamidiyeh, killing 3 and wounding 11 people.
This is the fifth attack since March 2008 that is claimed by the group.
Iranian government said that UK and USA were responsible for previous attacks.


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: advert

Organizers of a UN food summit in Rome have readmitted the journalist of Radio Farda who was denied admittance to the Food Summit.
Also they apologized for the "unfortunate incident".
The reasons why security guards prevented Ahmad Rafat from entering the World Food Security Summit on June 3, remain unclear.
Rferl.org speculates that the incident is linked to the speech Iran's president Ahmadinejad made that same day, where he accused powerful countries of orchestrating global food shortages for economic and political gain.
Rafat is a Rome-based correspondent for Radio Farda, a joint venture between RFE/RL and Voice of America that broadcasts to Iran.


EU has June 4 expresses its concern on news of the imminent execution of Behnood Shojaee, Mohammad Fadaei en Saeed Jazee (Jazi).
All three are convicted for crimes they alledgedly made when they were minors.
Behnood Shojaee and Mohammad Fadaei are scheduled to be hanged on June 11 while the execution date for Saeed Jazee is set to be on June 25.
The EU notes that these executions are in contradiction with the agreements, which are also undersigned by Iran, prohibiting the execution of minors or people who have been convicted of crimes committed when they were minors.
The EU calls on Iran to comply with international law and to immediately halt the executions.


Three people were killed and eight injured when an oil pipeline caught fire Wednesday in the Khuzestan province.
The report did not make clear whether oil deliveries were affected but it said the fire broke out late on Tuesday and was extinguished early on Wednesday.
The incident happened near the village of Bagh-Malek after oil leaked from the pipeline.



A Turkish general said that Turkey and Iran are working together on PKK strikes.
They share information and when necessary they'll act together.
General Ilker Basbug, head of the land forces and the second most powerful man in the Turkish military, told this to reporters at a security conference.
Since February Turkey performs military actions against the PKK in the borderarea with Iraq where the PKK is based.
Iran regularly has clashes with PEJAK in Iraqi border areas.


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: non grata

Iranian shelling Wednesdaymorning at five villages in northern Iraq close to the Iranian border wounded at least two people and killed livestock.
The shelling of the villages of Kal-Daza, Jomursi, Borye, Siamio and Kani Sif started at 4:00 a.m. local time and lasted until 6:00 a.m.
It was the first time that this area had been shelled by the Iranian army.
The borderarea between Iraq and Iran has been repeatedly targeted by Iranian artillery fire at actions against the PEJAK, the PKK’s breakaway faction in Iran.


A journalist, working for Radio Farda was denied entry to the UN food summit in Rome.
Ahmad Rafat told that him was told by Italian guards that he had been declared persona non grata at the World Food Security Summit.
Also he said that him is told that that this was because of pressure by a foreign delegation.
He thinks that his critical reports about President Ahmadinejad's trip to the Top have caused this reaction.

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: control

The Iranian government restricts food exports in a measure to control prices, regulate the domestic market and alleviate shortages.
According to Nourlaw.com, the government announced May 25 a decree to make the export of chicken meat, vegetable oil, potatoes, peas, split peas and beans subject to heavy levies.
In recent weeks the government put already heavy levies on the export of rice and corn.

Sunday the head of Chastity Headquarters in Isfahan announced that no taxi is allowed to offer service to "women who are inappropriately dressed".
He also said that the plan to stop women from riding bicycles has been successful, but a lot more is to do.
On the "not allowed"list is among other things make-up, clothes which show a piece of leg, bright colors.
Neither sex is to wear the T-shirts of "deviant groups," that is, Western rock groups and rappers.


Iran plans to build a cross-country pipeline to transfer oil from the Caspian region to the Persian Gulf and world markets.
The pipeline will connect Neka Port in the north of the country to Jask Port in the south.
The Deputy Oil Minister said that he pipeline will have the capacity to carry one million barrels of oil per day, but he did not elaborate on the projected cost or completion date of the project.
Iran also wants to build two big oilrefineries along the Caspian Sea coastline to refine crude oil.
At the moment six 63,000-ton ships are constructed along the Caspian coastline to facilitate shipment of oil and gas.
Photo: wikipedia

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: pass

Amnesty International calls for urgent action (pdf) for
Sohrab Bawi (alias Imad)33, en Mohsen Bawi,35.
The brothers were sentenced in 2005 to serve long prison terms (Imad to 25 years, after originally being sentenced to death and Mohsen to 30 years) over the bombattacks in Ahwaz/Khuzestan in 2005.(UA 233/05, MDE 13/051/2005).

Following the execution of their brother, Zamel Bawi,(29 January 2008) they were given leave from prison to spend time with their family.
February 16, they fled to Iraq, but got arrested on the border in Basra.
Since then they are detained and have appeared various times in court, charged with illegal entry.
Amnesty International fears they are both at risk of being imminently returned to Iran where they would face torture and new charges could be brought against them, resulting in possible death sentences.


According to IRNA, Fars newsagency has been exposed to a temporary ban of three days.
An official with the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance said Sunday that the temporary ban was for broadcasting false reports disturbing public opinion.
Although he did not elaborate, Foxnews reported that the ban is because Fars carried a report that the head of Iran's Central Bank had been replaced.
Authorities later denied the report of the replacement, and Fars reported the denial.

Amir Yaghoubali, member of One Million Signature Campaign has been sentenced to one year mandatory prison term on May 25.
According to his lawyer, Nasrin Sotoodeh, he has been found guilty of actions against national security through the spreading of propaganda against the state.
Yaghoubali was arrested July 2007 in a public park in Tehran while collecting signatures for the One Million Signatures Campaign.
Because collecting signatures is not considered to be an illegal act by any of the laws, and as such is a totally legal activity, he and the other two lawyers, Ms. Shirin Ebadi and Ms. Leila Alikarami, intend to object to the court’s decision and appeal the ruling.



A new law passed by parliament last Tuesday, will make Iranian women who suffer injury or death in a car accident, be entitled to the same amount of insurance compensation as men.
Under Islamic law in Iran, anybody who kills another person has to pay blood money or "diyeh" to the victim's family.
Until now the blood money paid for a woman has been half of that paid for a man.
Also (obligatory) vehicle insurances have to pay by that rule.
Meanwhile, both sexes pay equal premiums.
The bill still has to be approved by the Guardian Council.
The spokesman for the Judiciary said clearly that this law would only apply to insurance claims for people involved in traffic accidents and not to compensation in other areas.
The blood money rate, which is calculated annually in Iran, has been set at about $59,000 for the current year from March 2008.





Iran human rights activities says that the newspaper Etemaad (fa) reports that execution of
Behnood Shojaee and Mohammad Fadaei is scheduled for June 11.
The execution of Saeed Jazi is scheduled for June 25.
All three are sentenced to death for murders they allegedly committed when they were minors.



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

According to human rights activities Iran is May 29 one member of the Bahaí arrested in Yazd.
May 27 are Hooshmand Talebi, Mehran Zeyni en Farhad Ferdosian,arrested in Isfahan. Radio Farda said that the charge is burrying their dead at a grave yard.
Six leaders of the Baha’i community were arrested in the second week of May, and three other members of the Baha’i Ali Ahmadi, Changiz Derakhshanian and Ms. Simin Gorji were arrested in the town of Ghaemshahr.


Press-tv writes that Iran has different potentialities in tourism.
Many tourists yearly visit the Dasht-e Lut (Lout Desert), Kerman province. Kerman is situated in the South-East of Iran.
The heat can be 70degrees in the shade and it is so hot that you cannot stare at the horizon of the Lout Desert for more than 70 seconds at noon or the left hemisphere of your brain will fall sleep gradually. This numbs your nervous system and you die.
The desert is under black volcanic lava layers, which is the prime cause of such an extreme climatic condition says Parviz Kardovani, professor of geography at Tehran University.
In this heat there is no life, even bacterial life.A dead animal does not decompose, it will rather get dried by the searing heat from the sun.

Photo: Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech


Iran’s Football Federation (IFF) has lifted the ban on Ali Karimi following the Iranian president’s request.
Ahmadinejad visited the trainingscamp on Friday and he told the officials that if Iran wanted to qualify for the 2010 World Cup they have to strengthen the team at once.
Coach Ali Daei said that Karimi will miss the Emirates match but join the team after this game.
Karimi was banned after accusing Iran’s Football Federation of mismanagement.


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