RFL/RE – The ultraconservative former chief of Iran’s judiciary, Mohammad Yazdi, has died at the age of 89, the official IRNA state news agency reported. Yazdi, a student of Islamic republic founder Ruhollah Khomeini, died on December 9 due to “illnesses of the digestive system,” IRNA said. Yazdi was named to head the judicial authority in 1989, shortly after Supreme …

RFL/RE – In early December 2005, Nshan Topouzian, an ethnic Armenian bishop living in Iran, received an alarming tip-off. According to Iranian border guards, a demolition crew had arrived at the Armenian cemetery of Julfa, in the Azerbaijani exclave of Naxcivan. The Armenian cemetery of Julfa. This is one of several photographs of the ancient cemetery that were taken by …

Payvandnews – The Iranian Health Ministry has confirmed 10,223 COVID-19 infections and 295 deaths due to the respiratory disease in the past 24 hours. Health Ministry Spokesperson Sima Lari made the announcement on Wednesday, saying that the total coronavirus cases in the country have so far reached 1,072,620 with the death toll standing at 51,620. Funeral for a coronavirus victim …

Al-Arabia – A United Nations analysis of photos of four anti-tank guided missiles in Libya found that one “had characteristics consistent with the Iranian-produced Dehlavieh” missile, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres reported to the Security Council. However, he said in his biannual report – submitted to the council late Monday – that the UN secretariat was “unable to ascertain if this …

Radiofarda – In his new memoir, Barack Obama recalls a moment that shocked the world. In 2009, as protestors swarmed the streets of Iran’s capital, the clerical regime’s Basij militia shot and killed a young woman named Neda Agha Soltan. The 26-year-old philosophy student became a symbol of the uprising after a video of her final moments, her blood gushing on a Tehran street, went viral. In the …

iranwire.com – How each country has dealt with the coronavirus pandemic reflects on its government, and on where its priorities lie. In some societies, good management of Covid-19 has lent the state a level of popularity it did not enjoy before – whereas in others, such as Iran, the shortcomings of the political system have been laid bare for all …

RFL/RE – The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is urging Iran to cease jailing members of the press for their work after a 72-year-old journalist began a three-year prison sentence over his coverage of protests last year. “Jailing an elderly journalist in the middle of a raging pandemic shows how much contempt the Iranian judiciary has for the press,” CPJ’s …

RFL/RE – The outgoing administration of U.S. President Donald Trump has stepped up its pressure on Iran by imposing sanctions on the country’s ambassador to Yemen’s Huthi rebels. The fresh sanctions, announced on December 8, target envoy Hassan Irlu as well as the Qom-based Al-Mustafa International University for recruiting members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps’ (IRGC) Quds Force as …

Amnesty – A group of UN human rights experts have written to the Iranian government warning that past and ongoing violations related to prison massacres in 1988 may amount to crimes against humanity and that they will call for an international investigation if these violations persist, a push for accountability welcomed by Amnesty international on the eve of International Human Rights Day. “The …

Iran Human Rights (IHR) – Daniel Divani-Azar, a death row prisoner sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for the murder of Sadegh Barmaki, has been executed at Miandoab Prison. Another defendant in the case who was under the age of 18 at the time of his arrest, was killed after being beaten by prison officials and the third defendant was executed two …