Radiofarda – Afghan President Ashraf Ghani on Friday, May 8, ordered a “thorough” probe into the drowning of several migrants after Iranian border guards allegedly forced them into a river last week. An Afghan man wearing clothes spattered in red color lays down on a road as protesters shout slogans against the Iranian regime and demand justice during a protest …

Radiofarda – Iran’s foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has sent a letter to the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres saying the Islamic Republic “is ready for talks at any level to ensure the full implementation” of the 2015 nuclear agreement. In the letter dated May 8, Zarif attacks “the unilateral” actions of the United States, both in withdrawing from the …

Radiofarda – A new Radio Farda video documentary released this week, suggests that Judiciary Chief Ebrahim Raeesi is most certainly being groomed as the Islamic Republic’s next Supreme Leader. The documentary which is in Persian is titled: From Executioner to Supreme Leader. The video does not have a narrator and tells its story through comments made by a selected handful of …

Radiofarda – After an unprecedented delay amid the COVID-19 epidemic the National Organization for Civil Registration of Iran (NOCRI) has finally published nationwide death figures for past winter. On May 5, NOCRI had said that the organization will not be disclosing the country’s death toll for December 21-March 20, at the order of the country’s National Headquarters to Fight Coronavirus. Overall death …

Radiofarda – Iranian officials on Friday warned the residents of Tehran to be prepared for another possible earthquake after a shallow 5.1 magnitude tremor jolted the capital in the early hours of Friday. The city of Tehran is one of the hardest hit by the coronavirus crisis in Iran and still under partial lockdown. Morteza Salimi, Chief of Iran’s Red …

Al-Arabia – Hackers linked to Iran have targeted staff at Gilead Sciences, the maker of remdesivir, an anti-viral shown to reduce recovery times in COVID-19 patients, in recent weeks, according to sources.In one case, a fake email login page designed to steal passwords was sent in April to a top Gilead executive involved in legal and corporate affairs, according to …

Iran-HRM – Political prisoner Afshin Baymani is experiencing heart complications in Raja’i Shahr (Gohardasht) Prison in Karaj, yet is being denied medical treatment. Mr. Baymani referred to the prison dispensary on Tuesday, May 5, after he felt great pain in the chest and heart area. A source close to the family of this prisoner said he had been taken to …

Iran-HRM – At least 26 inmates have been infected with the novel coronavirus in one of the halls of Ward 3 of the Greater Tehran Penitentiary. They are denied medical treatment at the time. A sources from inside prison said, “The prisoners who are summoned to court on a daily basis, re-enter the ward without going through the quarantine. No …

Iran-HRM – An inmate in Sheiban Prison of Ahvaz has been held in solitary confinement since March 31, after protests over the spread of COVID-19 in the prison. Mehdi Sharifi, a Sunni prisoner convicted of “security” offences, has been accused of being involved in the prisoners’ protests over the authorities’ failure to address concerns related to the spread of COVID-19 in the …

(HRW) – Iranian courts since late April 2020 have sentenced at least 13 people to prison terms, apparently solely for peacefully protesting the Iranian forces’ deadly attack on a civilian airliner and the government’s initial denial of responsibility, Human Rights Watch said today. The authorities should halt all prosecutions that violate the right to peaceful assembly and protest. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps …