Radiofarda — The Islamic Republic and China are holding talks on finalizing their 25-year “Cooperation Roadmap” Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif insisted on Tuesday, July 14. Meanwhile, Zarif claimed that Beijing initially submitted a “draft” of the agreement in March 2020, based on an earlier copy presented by Iran. The controversial “cooperation road-map” has already triggered a barrage of …

Radiofarda – The coronavirus pandemic in the Iranian capital Tehran has reached critical levels, spurring health authorities to call for reintroduction of restrictions including a halt in religious gatherings. Iran’s daily death toll is now hovering around 200. Iranian authorities do not announce the death toll of the pandemic for individual cities or provinces but from what they have said …

Radiofarda – Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani Wednesday implicitly rejected any talk of an early departure from his post, promising to remain as president “to the last moment” without paying attention to “controversies”. Rouhani has been under pressure by the new Iranian parliament dominated by hardliners who hold him responsible for bad management of the economy and the failures of the …

Radiofarda – The interrogator of Abbas Amir-Entezam – the first and longest-jailed political prisoner in post-revolutionary Iran – has admitted that the prominent politician who spent decades in prison was a victim of anti-American sentiments. In an interview with Mostaghbal newspaper on Wednesday, Mohammad-Hossein Mottaqqi who was in charge of Amir-Entezam’s interrogations after his arrest in December 1979 said Amir-Entezam …

Radiofarda – Using execution as a means of suppressing dissent has a long history in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Iranian officials appear to have only one solution for all problems from drug trafficking to social protests: Execution. The Islamic Republic has been using execution as a solution and a preventive measure. Hours after executing two prisoners, Saber Sheikh Abdollah …

VOA – Iranian lawyers representing three men sentenced to death for involvement in antigovernment protests last November say they have asked the judiciary for a retrial of their clients, potentially averting executions that many Iranians and President Donald Trump fear are imminent. Defense lawyers Babak Paknia and Hosein Taj were quoted Wednesday by Iranian state media as saying they and a third attorney, Mostafa …

Amnesty – There has been an alarming escalation in use of the death penalty against protesters, dissidents and members of minority groups in Iran, Amnesty International said today, following the executions on 13 July of two Kurdish men in Urumieh prison in West Azerbaijan province. Diaku Rasoulzadeh and Saber Sheikh Abdollah had been convicted and sentenced to death in 2015 …

Iran Human Rights (IHR) – Zahra Mohammadi, a civil society activist and Kurdish language teacher, has been sentenced to 10 years in prison by the Sanandaj Revolutionary Court on charges of “forming a group against national security.” She has twenty days to appeal the verdict. According to Iran Human Rights (IHR), Branch One of the Sanandaj Revolutionary Court sentenced Zahra …

Iran Human Rights (IHR) – Two prisoners on death row for “narcotics” and another for “narcotics and premeditated murder” were executed in Isfahan Central Prison. A further two prisoners were returned to their cells after either settling with their victim’s families out of court or managing to buy time. According to Iran Human Rights, on the morning of Saturday, July …

​Iran Human Rights (IHR) – A prisoner, sentenced to retribution in kind (death) for “premeditated murder” was executed in Yasuj Central Prison. According to HRANA news agency, on the morning of Monday, July 13, a prisoner on death row was executed in Yasuj Central Prison. The identity of the prisoner has been established as Mohammad Hadi Dadian, around 25 years …