Radiofarda – There are indications that Iran’s firebrand former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad may be willing and ready to run for president in 2021, less than a year from now. But are Iran and its Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei also ready for that? When Ahmadinejad started a new round of provincial visits during the year preceding the February 2020 parliamentary elections, …

Radiofarda – Iran’s Economy and Finance Minister has said the coronavirus pandemic has cost his country a 15 percent drop in Gross Domestic Product and even if there were no American sanctions, it would not be possible to compensate for the loss. The minister, Farhad Dezhpasand told parliament on Sunday that Iran has to live without an oil income in …

Radiofarda – The former executive deputy of the Islamic Republic’s powerful Judiciary has gone on trial for large-scale corruption on Sunday, June 7 in Tehran. Akbar Tabari served under Ayatollah Sadeq Amoli-Larijani from 2009 to 2019, immediately before the dismissal of the influential cleric once thought to be the next Islamic Republic Supreme Leader. Amoli-Larijani’s tenure as the head of …

Iran-HRM – Human rights activist Nader Afshari was arrested and taken to Tehran’s Evin Prison to begin serving his sentence. Mr. Afshari was arrested today on the order of Judge Mohammad Moghiseh after attending Branch 28 of the Revolutionary Court of Tehran.Nader Afshari was previously arrested following nationwide protests over dire economic conditions by Ministry of Intelligence officials on August 1, 2018 …

Iran-HRM – Zeinab Jalalian, a Kurdish political prisoner serving a life sentence, has contracted the coronavirus at Qarchak Prison in Varamin, her father told the Kurdistan Human Rights Network. The Ministry of Intelligence has not allowed her to be taken to a hospital outside the prison.Ali Jalalian said, “On Tuesday night, June 2, Zeinab Jalalian was transferred to the prison’s medical center …

RFL/RE – Iranian scientist Majid Taheri has returned home after his release from prison in the United States as part of a prisoner exchange, semiofficial Iranian news agency ISNA reported. Majid Taheri (left) speaks to reporters after his return to Iran on June 8. Taheri, who had been detained in the United States for 16 months, was freed on June …

Iran Human Rights (IHR) – A death-row prisoner has been executed in the central prison of Shahrekord, the capital city of Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari province. He was sentenced to qisas (retribution) for murder charges. According to the Iranian state TV news, a man was hanged recently in Shahrekord prison. The exact date of the execution has not been mentioned in the news …

Radiofarda – The head of Iran’s hardliner Judiciary issued a new directive June 6 advocating a separate treatment for “political crimes” by those who criticize the country’s clerical rulers from “security crimes” by those who question the very essence of the regime. In the new directive, the mid-ranking cleric Ebrahim Raeesi (Raisi) has stressed the need to investigate people accused …

(AFP) – At least 12 pro-Iranian fighters died in strikes by unidentified aircraft on eastern Syria late Saturday evening, a war monitor said. “Eight air strikes before midnight on Saturday night targeted a base of pro-Iranian forces in rural eastern Deir Ezzor (province), killing 12 Iraqi and Afghan fighters and destroying equipment and ammunition,” the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights …

Radiofarda – A senior Iranian intelligence official has claimed that freed U.S. citizen Michael White was “deported” on “humanitarian grounds” after the deterioration of his health. The director of counter-intelligence’s announcement was posted on the Islamic Republic Intelligence Ministry’s website, without naming him. This is the first time an Iranian government official has referred to the “expulsion” of the U.S. …