Iran-HRM – Political prisoner Saeed Sangar was informed on Saturday, April 11, 2020, that he had received a new 15-year sentence after spending some 20 years in prison. Mr. Sangar completed serving his 18-year sentence in prison in 2018, but the Iranian Judiciary prevented his release. After two years now, the lawyer appointed by the court informed him that he …

VOA – An international organization representing Baha’is says it is extremely concerned about Iran’s ongoing detention of up to 100 Baha’is at risk of contracting the coronavirus in Iranian prisons.   In a VOA Persian interview on Monday, the Baha’i International Community’s chief representative to the U.N. in New York, Bani Dugal, said an estimated 50 to 100 Iranian Baha’is remain …

Radiofarda – Five thousand labor and civic activists in Iran have issued a statement demanding renegotiation over a minimum wage decision announced by the government on April 9. According to the law, a tripartite commission of government officials, employers and workers should negotiate the minimum wage for workers and laborers every year. This year, the government and employers agreed on …

Al-Arabia -Iran’s death toll from the new coronavirus has risen to 4,585, with 111 deaths overnight, a health ministry official tweeted on Monday, adding the total number of infected cases had reached 73,303 in the most-affected Middle Eastern country. Read the latest updates in our dedicated coronavirus section.“Fortunately 45,983 of those infected with the virus have recovered … There were 1,617 …

Radiofarda – An op-ed by the Chinese envoy in Tehran published in the Iranian government mouthpiece, Iran Newspaper, on Monday may backfire and make more Iranians angry by the preferential treatment afforded to China. The Chinese ambassador’s op-ed only promoted President Xi Jinping’s proposal to countries affected by the coronavirus pandemic to build a “Health Silk Road”, a step towards …

Radiofarda – An official in charge of running Iran’s Football (soccer) Federation for almost a decade has stepped forward, openly admitting that the association has time and again lied to the world governing body, FIFA about its independence from the government. Speaking on a local radio show in Tehran, Iran’s football federation (FFIRI) chief (2008-16) Ali Kafashian declared that despite …

Radiofarda – An outspoken cleric who supervises Iran’s Qods Force says the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) is Washington’s agent, assigned to culturally infiltrate the clergy-dominated country. Meanwhile, the mid-ranking cleric, Ali Shirazi, who is Supreme Leader Ali khamenei’s appointed man to watch the Qods (Quds) Force has called for defying UNICEF and countering its activities in Iran. …

Radiofarda – A newspaper close to the office of the Islamic Republic’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has suggested that financial institutions operating under his aegis should support low-income Iranians hit by the economic consequences of the COVID-19 outbreak. The Jomhouri-ye Eslami (Islamic Republic) newspaper is funded by Khamenei’s office and its editor Masih Mohajeri who wrote the article is known …

Iran-HRM – In recent days, the number prisoners died of the novel coronavirus have increased in Iranian prisons.In the past week, two prisoners held at Gezelhesar Prison were separately taken to Khomeini Hospital after showing coronavirus symptoms. The prisoners Ma’danchi and Nadali Aliabadi, both died at the hospital.According to reports the hospital wrote heart attack as the cause of deaths …

RFL/RE – OPEC, Russia, and other oil-producing countries have finalized an agreement on an unprecedented oil-production cut in the hope of bolstering global prices that have collapsed due to the coronavirus pandemic and a price war.OPEC-Plus, a group of 23 oil-producing countries that includes Russia, said late on April 12 that it had agreed to reduce output by 9.7 million …