VOA – The U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a resolution Tuesday supporting the Iranian people’s right to free expression while condemning the country’s leadership for crackdowns on recent protests. http://av.voanews.com/Videoroot/Pangeavideo/2018/01/a/a7/a748fb74-b2b8-48c1-89ad-e19f29e43dea_manifest.mpd The 415-2 vote comes just days ahead of the beginning of a congressionally mandated 60-day window for lawmakers to address U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to not re-certify the …

HRANA -The Center of Statistics at Human Rights Activists in Iran (HRAI) has published a report regarding the recent seven days of protests in Iran which occurred from December 28, 2017 to January 03, 2018. Currently, we have reports on the extent of the protests and the names of arrested individuals as of January 09, 2018. At the time of …

Iran Human Rights – The death of Vahid Heidari, one of the arrested protesters, was confirmed while the official sources had originally announced him as a drug dealer who had committed suicide. According to a close source, Vahid Heidari, a vendor from Tekyeh Valley in Shazand, Arak, was arrested by the police during the recent protests in Arak on December …

Amnesty -The Iranian authorities must immediately investigate reports that at least five people have died in custody following a crackdown on anti-establishment protests, and take all necessary steps to protect detainees from torture and prevent any further deaths, Amnesty International said today. “The shroud of secrecy and lack of transparency over what happened to these detainees is alarming. Instead of …

CHRI – Relatives Sleeping Outside Evin Prison Demanding Answers The families of several members of a Muslim Sufi order in Iran known as the Gonabadi Dervishes are still seeking answers to basic questions about loved ones who were detained in the recent anti-government protests, the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) has learned. “Kasra [Nouri] phoned around 9 p.m. …

CHRI – New Report Details Growing State Ability to Block, Censor and Monitor the Internet in Iran January 10, 2018—The recent unrest in Iran—during which the authorities disrupted Iranians’ access to the internet and blocked major social media networks used by the protesters—demonstrates that the Iranian government’s decade-long effort to control the internet in Iran is being realized. In a …

Al-Monitor – In recent months, Iran’s powerful judiciary has found itself under pressure from an usual source — conservatives. In addition to former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his aides, who kicked off a campaign against the judicial system in August, a small but influential university student group also now has the judiciary in its crosshairs. One member of the Justice-Seeker …

AL-Monitor – In his first extensive comments on the recent protests in Iran, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Jan. 9 pointed the finger at the United States, Israel and Saudi Arabia, saying they planned the unrest. On Dec. 28, people in the northeastern city of Mashhad took to the streets to express their anger at the government for failing …

PayvandNews – Nearly 96 percent of Iran’s total area is suffering from different levels of prolonged drought, the director for drought and crisis management department of Iran’s Meteorological Organization said. Referring to Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI) over the past 84 months, Shahrokh Fateh said drought severities range from abnormally dry to moderate, severe and even extreme drought. SPEI is designed to …

lobelog – According to reports by the Committee on the Rights of the Detained, a 22 year old held in the quarantine ward of Evin prison in Tehran died in detention. The committee, set up by human rights activists and former political prisoners, aims to track the situation of those detained in the recent protests in Iran, explained that prisoners …