gatestoneinstitute – Just a little more than ten years ago, Finland’s flagship telecommunications company, Nokia, was found to have sold to Tehran surveillance technology, which was used a year later to suppress dissident demonstrators’ use of social media. “[T]here are two documented instances where [the Finnish company] Cargotec-tied cranes have been used for public executions.” — United Against Nuclear Iran …

Iran Human Rights (IHR) – A man was hanged at Kerman Central Prison on drug charges yesterday. This is the second execution for drug charges in Kerman prison in two days. According to IHR sources, on the morning of April 28, 2019, a man hanged at Kerman Central Prison on drug charges. Baluchi Activists Campaign revealed the prisoner’s name as …

Iran Human Rights (IHR) – A man was executed on murder charges at Babol Prison on April 24. According to Rokna, on the morning of Wednesday, April 24, a man was hanged at the Iranian northern city of Babol’s prison. His identity was not revealed and his name was mentioned as “A.GH” in the news. He was sentenced to death …

CHRI – University students in Iran could be punished for engaging in online activities deemed by the government as “unethical” following the passage of an amendment to the Islamic Republic’s academic disciplinary regulations. “Publishing unethical photos or committing immoral acts in cyberspace and on information-sharing networks will result in disciplinary action against students,” said Jamasb Nozari, director of the state-run …

Al-Monitor – A controversial bill in the Iranian parliament seeks to ban its members from running for office after serving three consecutive terms. Under the new bill, high-profile moderates such as current parliamentary speaker Ali Larijani and outspoken lawmaker Ali Motahari, who have both served three consecutive terms, would not be eligible to run in the 2020 legislative elections. On …

Al-Monitor – During an April 29 speech addressing Iran’s police force commanders, Qasem Soleimani of the Quds Force – the foreign operations branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) –  weighed in on one of the hot topics in Iranian media: direct talks between Iran and the United States. “The enemy [America] wants to drag us to the negotiating table through …

Radiofarda – The labor union for the Haft Tappeh Sugar Mill workers says workers’ representative Esmail Bakhshi and labor movement activist Sepideh Qolian have been transferred from a prison in Ahvaz, Khouzestan Province, to Tehran’s Evin Prison. The union’s page on the social networking platform Telegram reported on Sunday April 28 that the inmates’ dossiers have also been sent to …

Radiofarda – Controlling social networks at the time of crises is a “must” that should “seriously be considered,” says the head of the Islamic Republic’s Passive Defense Organization (PDO), Brigadier General Gholamreza Jalali. Jalali, who is a Revolutionary Guard general, made the remarks April 28 while visiting Bushehr, the home of Iran’s sole nuclear power reactor, to supervise a drill …

Radiofarda – Some two months after massive swarms of locusts attacked southern Iran, the government allocated a 10 billion tuman budget for fighting the pest, Mehr news agency reported on Monday April 29. Mehr added that the Iranian Pest Control Authority had called for a 12 billion tuman [roughly $1,200,000 at the market rate and $3 million at the government rate] …

Radiofarda – The commander of Iran’s extra-territorial military Qods force, Qassem Soleimani told a gathering in Tehran on Monday that “people believe negotiations in the current conditions is pure surrender and we will not bow so low”. The 62-year-old general also said that the way out of the current conditions is “resistance economy”, a term coined by Supreme Leader Ali …