A Daily Overview of Human Rights Violations in Iran for January 21, 2019

HRANA – The following is an overview of human rights violations in Iran on January 21st, 2019 based on the information compiled and verified by Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA).

(1) Zartosht Ahmadi Ragheb, civil rights activist and firefighter, was arrested today. He was in three day sit in by Shahriar governorate protesting his laying off after 17 years of working there. He was released after few hours.

(2) Baha’i citizens, Mahboub Habibi, Pejman Shahriari, and Kourosh Rohani, were sentenced to one-year imprisonment on the charge of “propaganda against the state”. They have been arrested last year and were released on bail in September.

(3) The case of the detained lawyer, Amir Salar Davoudi, was transferred to the Tehran Revolutionary Court. He is banned from visiting or contacting his wife. He was arrested on November 20 on the charge of “propaganda against the state” and “insulting the Supreme Leader”.

(4) Gholamhossein Karbaschi, the executives of Construction Party, was arrested earlier today. He had been sentenced to one-year prison term earlier in Isfahan court. His lawyer reported that Karbaschi was released after few hours.

(5) The judicial committee of the parliament approved on Monday a bill, according to which, children born to Iranian mothers and foreign fathers are permitted to receive Iranian citizenship.

(6) Two prisoners of Urmia prison, Mohammad Patayesh and Kamal Abdollahi have been sentenced to 14 years in prison, combined, on charges of “espionage” and “supporting a Kurdish opposition group.

(7) A Baha’i citizen, Atousa Ahmadaei, who was arrested in Tehran on Sunday, was transferred to Evin prison. The intelligent officers also searched her home and confiscated her belongings indicating that her charge is “acting against the national security’.

(8) Several lawyers wrote an open letter to Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Iran, Javid Rehman, to express their concerns about Esmail Bakhshi and Sepideh Gholian ‘s arrest. They were arrested after the broadcast of their under-torture confessions on the national television.

(9) More than five protests were organized in Iran on January 21, 2019. The workers of National power distribution Company in Tehran, the municipality workers in Lowshan, the investors of Caspian financial institution, and the customers of its branch in Mashhad, Badr Toos institution have held separate protests requesting their demands. Moreover, 300 workers of Nishabur municipality have 30 million Toman [approcimately 3000 USD] unpaid wages, each. They were protesting multiple times in January.

(10) Hamid Babaei, a detained Ph.D. student in finance at Liège University in Belgium, who is serving his six years prison sentence, returned to Evin Prison by the end of his furlough. He was arrested while visiting his family in Iran in 2013 on the “espionage” related charges.

(11) A worker died in Khorramshahr and another worker was injured in Bardaskan in Razavi Khorasan province, because of negligence in the oversight of safety conditions in their workplaces.

(12) A prisoner accused of murder, was spared from hanging on gallows by paying the blood money and consent of next of kin. He was spending 14 years in prison.