Amnesty – The arrest of Nasrin Sotoudeh, a prominent Iranian human rights lawyer, is an outrageous attack on a brave and prolific human rights defender, Amnesty International said today. Nasrin Sotoudeh was arrested at her home in Tehran this morning and transferred to the prosecutor’s office of Evin prison, according to her husband, Reza Khandan. In an interview earlier today …

Iran-HRM – Kurdish political activist Zeinab Jalalian, who has been serving a life sentence, wrote an open letter protesting the authorities denying her access to medical treatment. In her letter she describes how the authorities denied her access to medical treatment, yet fabricated a medical case and published their fake documents in the state media. Zainab Jalalian called the allegation …

Iran-HRM – Iran officials ban Kurdish clothes and language in public places Kurdish people are banned from wearing their traditional dress in public.

Iran-HRM – Sunni prisoner Hamzeh Darvish who has been on hunger strike protesting his illegal transfer to another ward, at Rajaei Shahr Prison, is currently banned from any visit. He does not even allowed to use the prison phone to contact his family.

Al-Arabia – The United States State Department has condemned Iran’s role in facilitating the September 11, 2001 attacks after a report by Al Arabiya of an Iranian official’s a Farsi language interview.

RFL/RE – The White House is moving to defend U.S. President Donald Trump’s deal allowing Chinese telecom giant ZTE to stay in business despite violating sanctions against Iran and North Korea.

RFL/RE – Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has said he needs the assistance of Iranian and Hizballah forces in Syria and they will stay for as long as they deem necessary.

Radioamaneh – Fifty protesting workers of Ahwaz Steel National Industrial Group participating in protests on Monday June 11 were arrested by the authorities. Reportedly another group of workers who had gathered on Tuesday to protest the arrest of their colleagues were also arrested. According to Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) their reporters were at the protest location on Monday …

Iran Human Rights – Following the arrest of Ms Nasrin Sotoudeh, EP Vice-President Heidi Hautala (Greens/EFA, FI) and Chair of the Subcommittee on Human Rights (DROI), Pier Antonio Panzeri (S&D, IT), stated: “Yesterday Ms Nasrin Sotoudeh was arrested in her home in Tehran, Iran, and was reportedly transferred to Evin prison. We strongly condemn her arrest and call on the …

Al-Monitor – On June 9, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani met with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization’s annual summit in the Chinese city of Qingdao. Among the issues discussed in the meeting, the two sides touched upon their regional cooperation, especially in Syria, calling it effective in preserving regional stability. According to Rouhani, “The …