Iran-HRM -A man awaiting finger amputation in a northwestern Iran prison has been sentenced to additional four years in prison and 80 lashes on the charge of “insulting the warden of Urmia Central Prison” and “disrupting prison order”. The Urmia Criminal Court has sentenced Hadi Rostami to prison and lashes without holding a court hearing. According to the verdict issued …

Iran-HRM – Prison authorities have refused to authorize temporary leave for a Kurdish political prisoner to attend his daughter’s funeral. The kurdish political prisoner Arash Nasri held in Rajai Shahr Prison of Karaj, has recently lost his 15-year-old daughter and requested a few hours furlough to attend her funeral. After several days of follow-up by him and his family, the …

Iran-HRM – Political prisoner Saeed Eghbali is being held in solitary confinement with two death-row prisoners after he was banished from Evin Prison to Rajai Shahr Prison in Karaj. Prison officials have told Saeed Eghbali that he will be transferred to a ward holding common criminals and that they have no responsibility to protect his life and health. Saeed Eghbali was abruptly …

VOA – Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said Wednesday that his country is committed to give Iran its due share of water under a decades-long bilateral treaty but he stressed that Tehran will have to pay for any additional requirements. “We will honor our commitments. However, anything beyond the stipulated quota would require discussions,” Ghani said in a televised speech after inaugurating …

CHRI – At the end of every year in Iran, the Labor Ministry sets the national minimum wage for the following year, determining a base income for more than 40 million Iranian workers. For the Persian year 1400, starting March 20, 2021 in the Christian calendar, Labor Minister Mohammad Shariatmadari announced there would only be a 39 percent increase—far less than the inflation rate …

CHRI – Political prisoners in Iran, long subjected to especially harsh treatment in Iran’s prisons, have been largely left out of the furloughs (temporary leaves from prison) typically granted to many prisoners for Nowruz, the Iranian new year that began on March 20, 2021. With a handful of exceptions, the vast majority of those who went home for the new year holidays …

Iran Human Rights (IHR)- A prisoner named Asef Taghinejad who had been sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder, was executed in Tabriz Central Prison in early March. According to Hrana news agency, a man was executed in Tabriz Central Prison on the morning of March 8. His identity has been established as Asef Taghinejad, who was from the village of Aruq in …

Al-Monitor – Following Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s speech on the important issues facing the country in the upcoming year, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps announced plans to form groups to make sure these issues are prioritized. In an open letter to Khamenei following the start of the Iranian new year on March 20, Hossein Salami announced the formation of the Headquarters for …

Iranwire – The Iranian judiciary’s Secretary of Human Rights Affairs has claimed that foreign political prisoners and hostages in Iran are sometimes unwilling to go back to their countries of origin. In a statement cited by the IRGC-affiliated Tasnim News Agency,  Ali Bagheri Kani said widespread concern about the maltreatment and poor conditions faced by political prisoners in Iran was …

VOA – Benjamin Briere is a French tourist who was arrested last May while visiting Iran with his drone and minivan. Still detained, he was charged with espionage and “spreading propaganda against the system.” His lawyers deny the charges. If found guilty, he could be sentenced to death. Briere’s case is the latest in a series against foreigners at a time …