Amnesty – Responding to news that Ahmadreza Djalali, an Iranian-Swedish specialist in emergency medicine, has been transferred to solitary confinement in Evin prison and told by the prosecution authorities that his death sentence will be carried out imminently, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa, Diana Eltahawy, said: “We were horrified to learn that the authorities …

Iran Human Rights (IHR) – Anisa Jaffari-Mehr, a Kurdish cultural activist, has been arrested at her home by security agents and transferred to an unknown location. According to Iran Human Rights, security forces arrested Anisa at her home in Eslamabad Gharb, Kermanshah, and took her to an unknown location. Speaking to IHR, an informed source said: “Anisa Jaffari has a …

Al-Monitor – The Iranian government says it will tap into its National Development Fund  to pay compensation to the families of the victims of a downed Ukraine International Airlines flight. The jetliner crashed outside the capital, Tehran, in January. None of the 176 people on board survived the missiles fired by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). The exact amount of the compensation …

Payvand.com – Veteran Director and Scriptwriter Kambuzia Partovi died of COVID-19 on Tuesday. He was 65. Partovi, the prominent director of children’s cinema and scriptwriter of many films, including Muhammad: The Messenger of God, died on Tuesday morning in Day Hospital in Tehran after a short illness due to the infection of coronavirus. Kambuzia Partovi(February 8, 1956 – November 24, …

RFL/RE – Washington announced on November 23 that it will launch a six-month trial program next month to force visitors from about two dozen countries to post thousands of dollars in bonds before they enter the United States.The aim, first spelled out in a presidential memorandum 19 months ago, is to discourage travelers from countries with high rates of visa …

RFL/RE – The German government says the foreign ministers of Britain, France, and Germany are meeting in Berlin on November 23 for talks focusing on the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, days after the UN’s atomic watchdog said Tehran had again breached the agreement. “Together with our partners, we strongly call on Iran to stop violating the deal and return …

iranwire.com – On November 20, 2020, the Tehran-based newspaper Kayhan declared a “complete defeat of the coronavirus in China”. Quoting President Xi Jinping, the ultraconservative daily wrote: “While the World Health Organization has warned of an upward curve of Covid-19 deaths in many countries, China yesterday announced the complete defeat of coronavirus within the country. China, which has a population of more …

iranwire.com – Siamak Namazi, who has been jailed in Iran since 2015, has appealed to President Rouhani’s vice president for science and technology, asking him to put an end to the injustice Namazi and his family continue to endure. Siamak Namazi has been accused of collaborating with the “hostile” United States government and has been sentenced to 10 years in prison. His father, …

iranwire.com -A member of the National Coronavirus Taskforce has described the news that coronavirus drugs are being sold on the black market as a “tragedy.” On November 23, Dr. Minoo Moharez, a member of the National Coronavirus Taskforce’s Scientific Committee, expressed outrage that several types of medication used to treat Covid-19 patients are being sold at exorbitant prices at Tehran’s Nasser Khosrow Avenue, …

iranwire.com – A freelance reporter facing a five-year prison sentence in Iran has been recognized in the Committee to Protect Journalists’ annual International Press Freedom Awards. Mohammad Mosaed was sentenced to four years and nine months in prison and a two-year ban on journalism by Branch 26 of Tehran’s Islamic Revolutionary Court on August 25, 2020. The veteran economic reporter …