CHRI – Iran’s Systematic Denial of Medical Treatment to Prisoners Causes Yet Another Catastrophic Illness Iranian Journalist Alireza Rajaee Prominent journalist Alireza Rajaee had his right eye and part of his jaw removed due to cancer which was left untreated when he was in prison in Iran between 2011 and 2015, his wife told the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI). “When …

PayvandNews – Every single foreign tourist visiting Iran spends an average of $1,200, bringing in income as much as exporting 30 barrels of oil, the Iranian tourism chief said in a meaningful comparison as the country seeks to cut reliance on oil incomes. “Tourism [boom] will have a significant impact on job creation,” Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts Organization Director Ali-Asghar …

Amnesty – Immediate action is needed to stop the imminent destruction of a mass grave site in the southern Iranian city of Ahvaz, Khuzestan Province, where the bodies of dozens of the several thousand political prisoners who were extrajudicially executed by the authorities in August and September 1988 are buried. 2017 marks the 29th anniversry of the mass prisoner killings. View …

RFL/RE – Iran’s judiciary has confirmed that an appeals court has upheld 10-year prison sentences for a U.S. citizen, an Iranian-American businessman and his 81-year-old father, and a Lebanese citizen who holds a U.S. Green Card.

RFL/RE — The United States says it is “deeply concerned” by reports that imprisoned Iranian spiritual leader Mohammad Ali Taheri has been sentenced to death, and it called on the authorities to reverse the decision. The State Department on September 1 said the charges of founding a religious cult and “spreading corruption on Earth” violate Tehran’s obligations to “respect and ensure …

VOA – Iran’s Arabic language TV station al-Alam is reporting that the country’s air defense base sent two warnings in the last six months to U.S. spy aircraft that approached Iranian airspace. The TV’s website quoted the country’s chief of air defense, Brig. Gen. Farzad Esmaili, as saying Iran warned a U2 reconnaissance aircraft on March 21. He did not mention the location. …

CHRI – Three weeks on hunger strike in Rajaee Shahr Prison have inflicted serious physical harm on prominent labor activist Reza Shahabi, his wife said in an interview with the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI). “I saw him on Wednesday [August 30, 2017]; he wasn’t at all well,” Robabeh Rezaei said. “He has lost weight and has fluctuations in …

CHRI – The lawyer for ailing political prisoner Ehsan Mazandarani has requested his client spend the month remaining for the completion of his sentence on medical leave but so far Iranian judicial authorities have refused. “Ehsan has twice lost consciousness in prison,” the reformist journalist’s mother Azam Eghtesad told the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) on August 31, 2017. “His condition is …

PayvandNews – The central Iranian province of Yazd is on track to welcome more tourists by registering a major boost in the number of its ecolodges and inscribing its historical capital on the UNESCO World Heritage list.  “The time is ripe for tourism growth across the province as the sum of all its travel-associated indicators have improved over the past four years,” …

RFL/RE – Iranian media reports say a bus crash has killed 12 people, all but one of them schoolgirls travelling to the southern city of Shiraz for a sports and cultural event. Reports said the bus carrying 45 female students overturned early on September 1 on a road linking the town of Darab to Shiraz, some 1,100 kilometers south of Tehran. …