RFL/RE – The number of deaths from COVID-19 in Iran has exceeded 100 for the first time in two months, the country’s Health Ministry said on June 14. Ministry spokeswoman Sima Sadat Lari announced 107 coronavirus fatalities in the past 24 hours, raising the overall death toll to 8,837. She said the number of infections had reached 187,427, with 2,472 …

Iran Human Rights (IHR) – Five death-row prisoners were hanged on Wednesday, June 10, at a prison in a Karaj city, near the capital. According to the Iranian newspaper, Hamshahri, five people were executed on June 10, 2020, at Rajai Shahr prison. All of them were sentenced to qisas (retribution in-kind) for murder charges. IHR sources could identify two of them …

christianpost.com – The recent disturbing rise of violent acts against religious minorities in Iran — the internal exiles and transfers of Gonabadi Sufis to COVID-19 infested wards of prisons, the burning of a Christian cemetery, setting fire to Mordeci’s shrine and widespread negative propaganda against Jews, arrests and sentencings of Baha’is in different cities, smear campaigns against Sunni Sufis, to …

Radiofarda – Tehran has dismissed a United Nations report presented by the secretary general about the Iranian origin of missiles used in strikes against Saudi Aramco oil processing plants in May 2019. A Reuters report said on June 12 that that the agency has access to a report by UN Chief Antonio Guterres that stresses the missiles used in the …

Radiofarda – A series of mysterious blazes and wildfires in the past 45 days across Iran have puzzled the Islamic Republic authorities, citizens and observers alike. Local news outlets say a fire at the Saint Mary Church of Hamadan has been contained. The fire broke out on early Friday, June 12, a month after an ancient monument in the same …

Radiofarda – Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Saturday that U.S. President Donald Trump still has a good chance of being re-elected thanks to his strong support base, despite his declining support in recent months. “The biggest mistake in human sciences is to predict, especially in fluid and grave conditions. But allow me to venture a prediction that …

Radiofarda – The Spokesman of Iran’s Judiciary on Saturday said Mahmoud Mousavi-Majd who has been sentenced to death for “espionage on behalf of CIA and Mossad” had spied on Iranian forces in Syria. Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of an official ceremony, Gholam-Hossein Esmaili said the accused and his family were residents of Syria and he was “in contact …

Radiofarda – A Romanian court on June 12 postponed the extradition of Gholamreza Mansouri, a judge and former prosecutor arrested in Bucharest and wanted by Iran for corruption. A complaint against him has also been lodged in Germany by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) for human rights violations including mass arrest of journalists in 2013. Mansouri is currently held at a …

Al-Arabia – Iran’s oil revenues fell from $100 billion to $8 billion last year, first Vice President Eshaq Jahangiri said on Saturday, accusing the US, Saudi Arabia and Israel of plotting against Tehran. “We were a country with $100 billion in oil revenue in a single year, but the total oil revenue in 2019 was about $8 billion,” state media …

RFL/RE – A Colombian businessman indicted by U.S. authorities as the chief money launder for Nicolas Maduro’s regime in Venezuela has been detained in the African island archipelago of Cape Verde. Alex Saab was detained on June 12 as his San Marino-registered jet made a refueling stop in Cape Verde on its way from Caracas to Iran. U.S. Justice Department …