CHRI – To improve Iran’s ability to monitor and censor online content and user activity, the country’s Supreme Cyberspace Council (SCC) has ruled that all foreign social media networks must store domestic traffic data inside Iran. The SCC, which sets internet policy in Iran, has no path to force foreign social media apps to comply with the legally binding ruling. Rather, …

RFL/RE – Iranian journalist Sasan Aghaei has reportedly been arrested. The charges against Aghaei, who works for the reformist daily Etemad, are not clear. @SasanAghaei The opposition site Kalameh reports that Aghaei was taken away by security forces on the afternoon of August 12 from Etemad’s offices of in the Iranian capital. Later, Aghaei’s home was searched and he was transferred …

PayvandNews – The founder of fuzzy logic and University of Tehran graduate Lotfi Aliasker Zadeh has passed away. Mathematician and artificial intelligence scientist Lotfi Zadeh died on Saturday several days after it was reported that his health was severely deteriorating. He was born in 1921 in Baku to an Iranian Azerbaijani father from Ardabil and a Russian Jewish mother, who was also an …

RFL/RE – Iran’s parliament has given initial approval to a bill to increase spending on the country’s missile program and the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) in response to recent sanctions imposed by the United States. Lawmakers on August 13 overwhelmingly approved the outlines of the bill to “counter America’s terrorist and adventurist actions” as some chanted “Death to America,” state-controlled …

RFL/RE – Iran says it is in talks with the European aircraft manufacturer Airbus about the possible purchase of 48 helicopters for civilian use. Deputy Transport Minister Asghar Fakhrieh-Kashan told Iran’s Financial Tribune newspaper on August 12 that Tehran plans to order 45 emergency medical helicopters. Fakhrieh-Kashan said Iran’s Ports and Maritime Organization also plans to purchase three search-and-rescue helicopters. …

RFL/RE – Kuwaiti authorities arrested 12 convicted members of a “terrorist cell” with ties to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and Lebanon’s Hizballah movement on August 12 after a weeks-long manhunt. The men were among a group of 26 who had received prison sentences from Kuwait’s Supreme Court in June but refused to turn themselves in. The 12 members, who were on the …

Al-Arabia – Iranian media has reported that the country’s intelligence services over the past few weeks have arrested a number of people tied closely to the supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei and the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) charging them with espionage for the Israeli Mossad. Parliament member Mahmoud Sadeqi revealed to local media that two members of the Iranian Strategic Center …

Iran Human Rights -The Iranian authorities executed at least twelve prisoners on the same day. At least eleven of the prisoners were sentenced to death on drug related charges. At least eleven prisoners were reportedly hanged at Birjand Central Prison on drug related charges, and a prisoner was hanged at Babol’s Mati Kola Prison on murder and rape charges. According …

CHRI – Followers of imprisoned Iranian spiritual leader Mohammad Ali Taheri are being arrested by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) while he awaits a verdict more than three weeks after he was retried for the charge of “corruption on earth.” “[Branch 26 of the Revolutionary] Court should have issued a ‘not guilty’ verdict by now, but I don’t know what’s …

CHRI – Former MP Urges Rouhani to “Expose” Human Rights Violators Iran’s Sunni Muslim community is “disappointed” by President Hassan Rouhani’s decision to exclude members of the minority religious group from his cabinet, two former Sunni members of Parliament told the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI). One MP said Rouhani should “expose” those who oppose the inclusion of Sunnis …