Iran-HRM – The Great Tehran Penitentiary detainees arrested during the protests in November 2019 have been sentenced to a total of 159 years in prison. The state-run Ensafnews.ir reported that more than 50 detainees in the Great Tehran Penitentiary who had been arrested in November 2019, have been sentenced to a total of 159 years in prison. Those arrested include …

Radiozamaneh – Over the past two months, poverty, unemployment, and labor protests have spread throughout Iran as the covid-19 numbers are rising and making the situation worse for those workers who have lost jobs as well as those who still have jobs. Zamaneh Media’s 14th bimonthly Labor Rights Newsletter covers covid-19 related unemployment, delayed wages, and labor protests which occurred …

Al-Monitor – Iranian authorities have vowed to press charges after video emerged of police officers using pepper spray on a man who had already been handcuffed and who later died as a result of the spray. The video of Mehrdad Sepehri handcuffed to a pole and being repeatedly pepper-sprayed and tased shocked many social media users. The incident took place …

(AP) — As coronavirus infections reached new heights in Iran this month, overwhelming its hospitals and driving up its death toll, the country’s health minister gave a rare speech criticizing his own government’s refusal to enforce basic health measures. “We asked for fines to be collected from anyone who doesn’t wear a mask,” Saeed Namaki said last week, referring to …

PayvandNews – RCSC Charleroi player Yasaman Farmani says that there is no limit to what the Iranian women football players can accomplish. Farmani joined the Belgian top-flight football club from Iran’s Malavan in August. She is the wife of Iran international Ali Gholizadeh. They are the first Iranian couple to play at a European based football team. Yasaman Farmani and …

Al-Arabia – Australia is seeking information from Iran on reports that a British Australian academic who was convicted of espionage has been moved to a mystery location, the foreign minister said on Monday. Kylie Moore-Gilbert was a Melbourne University lecturer on Middle Eastern studies when she was arrested in Iran and sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2018. For …

Radiofarda – The board of trustees of Royan City Cemetery in Mazandaran, northern Iran, has distorted the images of women carved on their gravestones without informing their relatives. IRNA, the Islamic Republic government’s official news agency, reports, the citizens of Royan found out about the move last Thursday, October 22, and immediately protested. “Putting the images of women on their …

Radiofarda – Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said Sunday they have deployed troops along the border with Azerbaijan and Armenia, following stray fire from the fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh. “Units of (the Guards) ground forces have been dispatched to and stationed in the region,” their commander Brigadier General Mohammad Pakpour said, quoted by state news agency IRNA. Their mission was “to protect national …

Radiofarda – The Supreme Leader of Iran Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has criticized certain actions against the government and “particularly the President.” Lightly criticizing President Hassan Rouhani’s hardline opponents, Khamenei noted, “Desecration is forbidden, especially among the country’s top officials.” Speaking in a meeting with the members of the National Coronavirus Combat and Prevention Headquarters on Saturday, Khamenei claimed, “You have …

Iran-HRM – A young man suffocated to death from exposure to pepper spray after the state security forces harassed and tortured him in public. A harrowing video shared on social media on Saturday showed a police torturing a detained man handcuffed to a pole with pepper spray and tasers in public. The young man identified as Mehrdad Sepehri suffocated to …