Iran: increase

The Defenders of Human Rights Center, the Iranian human rightsgroup led by Shirin Ebadi has criticized Iran for alleged continued abuses in the country.
The group also said the situation for women in Iran is "worrying," and that members of the Bahai religious sect are being persecuted for their beliefs.
On July 14 they accused Iranian authorities of executing people who committed crimes before they were 18 years old and cracking down on academics and union members.
The last week arrested unionleader Mansour Osanloo is transferred to Evinprison.


From July 23, the number of police in Tehran assigned to control Islamic dressrules, will be doubled.
Thousands of women have already been warned and hundreds arrested across Iran for failing to adhere to the country's Islamic dress code .
The dress crackdown is just one part of a major moral drive in Iran dubbed the "plan to increase security in society" .
The crackdown has also seen police act against drug addicts, water pipe smokers and thugs.

Many students have been arrested in recent weeks for protesting against the fact that the editors of several studentpublications are arrested for allegedly writing anti-Islam articles.




The names of known students in jail are:





1- Morteza Eslahchi
2- Abdollah Momeni
3- Bahare Hedayat
4- Ali Vafghi
5- Hanif Yazdani
6- Mehdi Arabshahi
7- Mohammad Hashemi
8- Ali Nikoonesbati
9- Abbah Hakimzadeh
10- Keyvan Ansari
11- Ali saberi
12- Pooya Mahmoodiyan
13- Ehsan Mansoori
14- Ahmad Ghasaban
15- Majid Tavakkoli
16- Majid Sheykhpoor
17- Meghdad Khalilpoor
18- Bahram Fayazi
19- Mojtaba Bayat
20- Masood Habibi
21- Arash Khandal
22- Ashkan Ghiyasvand
23- Saeed Hosseinnia
24- Amirhossein Mehrzad
25- Habib Haj heydari
26- Amir Yagoubali


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: sovereignty

Newsagency Fars reported that in the city of Tabriz, East-Azerbaijan province, Saturday two men and a woman are hanged in public.The woman, identified as Hurieh, 29, was hanged along with Farhad, 23, and Reza, 24, for murdering her husband and three of her in-laws.

The daily Kayhan wrote that Saturday a man in public is hanged in the city of Shiraz, Fars province,
The man Navid Parham, 22 was accused of murder and robbery.


The hardline Kayhan newspaper had claimed in its editorial that Bahrain was separated from Iran through an illicit agreement between the former Shah of Iran and the governments of Britain and the United States and it further claimed that public demand in Bahrain backed reunification of "this province (Bahrain) with its motherland Iran."
The article led to protest demonstrations in the Bahraini capital Manama where anti-Iranian slogans were shouted and a formal apology of the Iranian government was demanded.

The Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad-Ali Hosseini said that the article just reflected the personal opinion of the writer and not that of the Iranian Foreign Ministry.
Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said yesterday during a visit to Manama, that Iran recognises Bahrain as an independent Arab state and has no ownership claims towards the country.

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: upbeat

Almost 150 government officials have resigned to run for the 2008 parliamentary elections.
According to the current elections law, if a candidate is a government manager, he must resign his post six months before the election.
Compared to last elections the number of officials who have resigned their posts to run for parliament has decreased.
Deputy Interior Minister for Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Mohammad-Hossein Musapur says this shows that the managers prefer to serve the nation at the executive sector rather than the legislative body.



According to Rfe/rl.news analysis it looks like if, while elections are coming, the government Ahmadinejad is less patient over the increasingly, in her opinion unjustified criticism in the media.
Critics are said to be manipulated by foreign countries,or made by grudging politicians.
The sum of recent reports show a frustrated government which is defending herself to not always justified verbal attacks from various quarters.


It says in The Guardian that candidates in next year's Iranian parliamentary elections will be banned from displaying posters and banners.
The parliament has passed a law severely restricting political advertising during campaigning. This has risen concerns over whether the poll will be free and fair.
Candidates will not be allowed exhibiting posters bearing their photos in public places, including car windscreens and on the doors of their election headquarters.
Publicity will be limited to policy statements and to adverts posted on the internet and by text messages. Candidates can also convey their messages through newspapers and state-controlled broadcasters.
Critics say that all this favours sitting MP's.


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: some

The daily Shargh reported that 54 people detained over the gasoline rationing riots have been released.
The other detainees are still under investigation of the public prosecutor’s office.




Iranian statetelevision reported that at least 18 people are killed and 24 others are injured in a road accident when a truck collided with a passengerbus.
The accident ocurred in Semnan. The half-asleep truck driver diverted his vehicle into the opposite lane, causing a head-on collision with an incoming bus.


Iranian artillery shelled near Iraq several Kurd villages during clashes with Kurdish rebels.
It was the third day of shelling in two areas along the border in northern Iraq.
Residents of the areas said the bombardment had not caused casualties but had killed farm animals and started a fire on a mountain.




Skynews reported that newsagency IRNA reported that police has taken 14 squirrels into custody - because they are suspected of spying.
The rodents were found near the Iranian border allegedly equipped with eavesdropping devices.
A Foreign Office source told Sky News: "The story is nuts."
IRNA reported that the squirrels were kitted out by foreign intelligence services - but they were captured two weeks ago by police officers.

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: carry out

Iran wants to execute 20 people in the coming days.
The judiciary spokesman, Alireza Jamshidi, told that "thugs convicted of rape, sodomy and assault and battery would be hanged in the coming days once prosecutors had decided whether to execute them in public.".
The condemned include at least 15 persons, detained in May during the "public morals" crackdown.



The head of Tehran's Bus Drivers Union Mansour Osanloo is Tuesdaynight kidnapped while leaving a bus in Tehran. Plain clothed men dragged him in a car.
There is strong reason to believe Mr Osanloo is being held by the Iranian authorities.
Last year Osanloo spent 7 months in jail for organizing a strike.

The International Transport Workers' Federation asked for his release.



Only hours after it had resumed transmission following a week-long suspension, Iran's judiciary banned Newsagency ILNA. A judge said the ban is based on many complaints and the order has been given to block the agency's site.
The report also said that Abotorab Fazel was appointed the new head of ILNA after the week-long suspension, and that the last transmission had been just before noon.
According to ISNA the former head of ILNA, Masoud Heydari,said that there are rumors about the ban, which he denies.
ILNA, which mainly dealt with labour issues, is close to the moderate-reformist coalition and critical of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the government's economic policies.



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: stones

For the first time in five years Iranian authorities confirmed a man has been stoned to death.
Some weeks ago Jafar Kiani was stoned to death in Aghche Kand, Qazvin province, convicted for adultery.
On June 20 the stoning sentence of him and his partner Mokarameh Ebrahimi, was postponed because of great international pressure.
It is not known when or if the stoning of the woman has taken place.
Amnesty International has started an urgent action for the woman.
The couple has spent the last 11 years in prison and has two children.
The judiciary spokesman Alireza Jamshidi
said the verrdict was implemented because it was "definitive."
In 2002 the head of Iran's judiciary, Ayatollah Mahmud Hashemi Shahrudi, declared a moratorium on stonings.


Newsagency Fars reported that the judicial spokesman Alireza Jamshidi said that new evidence is uncovered against Haleh Esfandyari and Kian Tajbakhsh who are accused of spying.

Therefore the Iranian intelligence department has started new investigations.
This means that the release of the two Americans is still far away.


Today an earthquake measuring 5.1 on the Richter scale jolted Ardebil province.
The quake was felt in several provincial cities including Ardebil, Nayyer, Namin, Parsabad, Bileh-Savar, Khalkhal and Meshkin-Shahr and caused panic among residents.
There are up till now no reports of material or personal damage.

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: investigation

In Shiraz is a man hanged.
Fars reported that the man, Navid Parham, 22 years was convicted for murdering Hojatollah Shahbazi while extorting money from him.



Iran has announced that it has uncovered five spy networks.
The members of the networks included foreign elements.
IRNA reported that an intelligence official in Kermanshah province said that 20 people have been arrested.
He declined to reveal the identities of the arrested spies on security grounds, adding that they are being interrogated.


Yesterday are six students arrested who demonstrated for the release of their fellowstudents.Their names are Bahareh Hedayat, Mohammad Hashemi, Ali Nekunesbati, Mehdi Arabshahi, Hanif Yazdani, and Ali Vafaghi.
The arrests were made on the eighth anniversary of a bloody attack by police forces and vigilantes on a university dormitory in Tehran in 1999.
Studentleader Abdollah Momeini told Radio Farda that it was not known where the students were hold and that also their family was denied to contact them.
Shortly after this he and a number of other students were also detained following a raid on the student Office to Foster Unity (Daftare Tahkim Vahdat).
In total are some 15 students and a mother arrested.



A group of Dutch architecturestudents will visit Iran from July 8 till July 29.
They plan to travel to Isfahan, Mashhad, Shiraz and other sites in Fars Province, and Kish, where they will visit Naqsh-e Jahan Square, Aali Qapu, Pasargadae, the Hafezieh, and Ferdowsi's tomb.
They also plan to visit Zanjan, Tabriz, Ardebil, Astara, and Abyaneh.
They will take part in a workshop at the University of Tehran and visit museums and historical buildings in the city of Tehran.


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: smuggle

According to IRNA is Monday in Birjand, Khorassan province, a man hanged.
The man, named Hassan Madadi, was convicted for drugstrafficking from 1.3 tons of opium.



Statetelevision reported that near the Pakistan border four fuel-smuggling trucks have collided and caught fire. 13 people have been killed.
The trucks, transporting thousands of liters of fuel, were traveling with their headlights off to avoid detection.
Four severely wounded survivors were transported to a hospital.

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: impressions

Saturday, the Iranian ambassador in Iraq, Hassan Kazemi Qomi, visited the five detained Iranian diplomats.
According to Presstv he said that the diplomats during the five-hour visit told that they objected to the way they had been abducted, and called on the Iraqi government to increase the efforts to secure their release.
He also asked to meet two other Iranians, abducted earlier by the USA. A decision about this would be made soon.
The spokesman of the Iranian Foreign Ministry told Sunday that the diplomats have complained about their treatment in detention.
The Iranian ambassador told IRNA that the diplomats would be allowed to meet with their relatives "in the coming days". He also said that there had been "an improvement in terms of their detention situation".


Journalist Mohammad Sadeq Javadihesar told Radio Farda in a telephone interview that Iranian reformist and centrist political forces are concerned about the country's upcoming parliamentary elections, scheduled for March 2008.
They worry that the conservatives and especially the government of President Ahmadinejad and the Guardians Council, will make the participation of reformist aspirants as difficult as possible in order to ensure another conservative-dominated legislature.
These concerns are reinforced by a more aggressive attitude toward government critics by Ahmadinejad's ministers and supporters in recent weeks.
Among other things by verbal attacks from officials on reformists and preceding administrations, accusing them of being inefficient, materialistic, and indifferent to revolutionary values.


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: union

Saturday is a man hanged in Isfahan.
The man was identified as Akbar A. and was accused of rape.



Mahmoud Salehi, leader and one of the founders of the Bakery Workers Association of Saqez is imprisoned since April 9.
That day he was ordered to visit the office of the prosecutor in Saquez, where him was told that the Kurdistan Appeal Court has reached the final verdict on his May Day 2004 case and that he has been sentenced to one year imprisonment and a three year suspended prison sentence.
He was arrested and was not allowed to contact his family, lawyer and colleagues. He was taken immediately to the Sanandaj Central Prison.
Since then his medical condition has worsened dramatically, as one of his kidneys has stopped working and the other one is almost failing. Up till now he has been denied of any medical treatment.
A petition can be signed here..


July 3 , Ebrahm Madadi, the Vice-president of the board of directors of the Syndicate of Workers of Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company was arrested.
Mahadi was at the Western Tehran Labor Department to follow up on the situation of 40 terminated workers, and was at first forbidden by the guards to enter the building.
After an hour he was arrested and taken to the police-station.
He was freed without any conditions on July 4.



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: saving

The Iranian automakers will have to stop making petrol burning autos in favor of CNG driving autos.


The Ministry for Industry and Mines set new rules for automakers to shift to building stingy fuel cars and called for the project to be listed on their five-year plan.



The Governorship of Marvdasht is determined to stop the damaging of Persepolis.
To avoid further damaging by poisonous gases caused by setting fire to wastages of agricultural products in the farmlands in the vicinity of this world heritage site, a expert group consisting of experts of Iran’s Agriculture-Jihad Ministry, Iran’s Environment Organization, Forest and Pasture Organization, Municipality, and Governor Office is constructed.
As the problem is directly related to farmers, they will try to settle it down peacefully by encouraging farmers through training them instead of using force and threatening them.
The governor of Marvdasht, Mehran Harafi said he hopes that with holding such training programs, the repetition of such a wrong activity in the vicinity of Persepolis World Heritage Site can be stopped.(Photo CHNPress)


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 play

Yesterday another earthquake jolted Yazd province.
Both earthquakes (measuring 5,1 and 4,7 on the Richter scale) caused only material damage.

In Behabad, Yazd province, the roofs of three houses collapsed and cracks appeared in the walls of dozens of buildings.








The Iranian statetelevision has confirmed that about 80 suspects on the charge of damaging gas stations and looting shops during last week's protests against fuel rationing, were arrested.
The suspects were identified after watching films by video surveillance and security cameras in the looted shops and damaged gas stations.
The report was the first confirmation that people were arrested during the protests over fuel rationing.
Fuel is very cheap in Iran.
Since the rationing every driver gets 100L per month, anything more than that will have to be bought at a higher price, which officials say will be announced within the next two months.


The Supreme Leader ayatollah Ali Khamenei has said, in a speech that activists should not try to change Islamic laws relating to women's rights.
He criticised the West for using women as a tool to advertise products, make money and to satisfy "disorderly and unlawful sexual needs".
Khamenei said it is wrong that women activists and some men are trying to play with Islamic laws ... in order to harmonize them with international conventions related to women.
The Islamic Republic rejects allegations it is discriminating against women, saying it follows sharia law.
He said this two days after an Iranian court sentenced a women's rights activist to almost three years in jail and 10 lashes for attending a banned rally.


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: extremely moderate

An earthquake measuring 5.1 on the Richter scale jolted the district of Behabad in the province of Yazd.
According to IRNA no reports of casualties or major damage to property are known.
Several teams have been dispatched to the district to evaluate possible damage.



The moderate daily newspaper Ham Mihan is banned less than two months after allowing it to return.
Gholam Hossein Karbaschi,the editor, told that the prosecutor's office has sent an official notice telling not to publish.
The ban is due to legal problems related to its chief manager, Gholam-Hossein Karbaschi.He was sentenced in 1998 to two years imprisonment on charges of corruption.
Ham-Mihan was banned back in 2000 but allowed to be reopened last May.


In Iran are several journalists arrested in recent weeks.

Mohammad Sadegh Kabovand, the editor of Payam-e mardom-e Kurdestan (a weekly that was closed down in 2004) was arrested on 1 July by intelligence ministry agents.
Said Matinpour,of Yarpagh (an Azeri-language weekly based in Tehran) has been detained since 28 May, when he and his wife were arrested at their home. He has been transferred to Evin Prison, ward 209.
Mohammad Hassan Fallahieh, Mohammad Hassan Fallahieh, a journalist with the Arabic-language service of the public radio and TV broadcaster Al-Alam, was tried by a revolutionary tribunal on 29 April on a charge of spying and was sentenced to three years in prison. He is also now being held in Evin prison’s security section 209.



Iranian and international rights groups have expressed concern over reports suggesting that a possible death sentence was handed down against Ayatollah Seyyed Hossein Kazemeyni Boroujerdi and some of his followers.
Boroujerdi is a vocal advocate of the secularistic Islam.
Unconfirmed reports on Iranian websites suggested that Iran's Special Court for the Clergy (SCC) in mid-June ordered the executions.
Semi-official media rejected the reports, saying no sentence has been issued and officials are still reviewing the case.
Mr. Lahidji of International Federation of Human Rights says a lack of transparency by Iran's judiciary and the clerics' court makes it impossible to confirm reports of the charges or possible sentencing.


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