RFL/RE – Iran has slapped travel bans on 15 people for alleged involvement in a leaked audio recording in which Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif complains about the influence of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) on Iranian diplomacy, semi-official news agency ISNA reported on April 29. In the leaked interview, aired by the London-based Iran International Persian-language satellite news …

RFL/RE – Judo’s governing body has suspended Iran as punishment for refusing to allow its athletes to compete against opponents from Israel.The International Judo Federation (IJF) imposed a four-year ban on April 29 after the Court of Arbitration for Sport said a previous indefinite ban was not allowed.The IJF disciplinary committee said the start of the suspension is backdated to September 18, …

Iranwire – IranWire sources report that this morning officers from the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Intelligence Unit raided the offices of President Hassan Rouhani and Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif. After a short altercation with the security guards of the president’s office and the Foreign Ministry, the Guards took a number of documents from the premises.  The raids took …

Iranwire – Late on Thursday, IranWire learned that the offices of Presidents Hassan Rouhani and Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif had been raided earlier in the day by members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)’s Intelligence Unit. Documents were seized from the two offices during the incident. It fell on the same day as government spokesman Ali Rabiei had …

Iranwire Manouchehr Bakhtiari, the father of Pouya Bakhtiari, one of the victims of the November 2019 protests, has been beaten up and arrested by the Islamic Republic’s security forces. His mother released a video on Thursday, April 29, 2021, announcing the shocking details of her son’s detention. Poya Bakhtiari’s grandmother said Manouchehr had been arrested at his brother’s house during …

Iranwire – Political prisoner Arash Sadeghi has spoken out about the plight of prisoners’ families, providing a detailed account of the harassment and threats they endure and the pressures they face. In an appeal to Javid Rahman, the United Nations Human Rights Special Rapporteur on Iran, Sadeghi said the human rights of these families were being systematically violated and cited widespread …

VOA – The United States has reiterated its concern about Iran’s poor human rights record in its first official comment on the Islamic republic’s election last week to the United Nations’ top legislative body on women’s rights. But it fell short of the explicit denunciation of the outcome that many rights advocates had hoped for. The remarks, which were provided …

Iran-HRM – The state security forces opened fire and used teargas Wednesday against locals who were protesting the cutting down of their walnut trees by government agents in Sarab Kahman village, in western Lorestan Province. The Special Forces opened fire on villagers with live bullets and pellet guns, injuring and wounding many of the locals including women. Special Forces attacked …

CHRI – As International Labor Day approaches, workers across Iran are facing a deepening crisis and inability to meet their most basic economic needs, as reflected in the growing number of labor protests and strikes this past year. Yet the government has not only failed to provide solutions, it has instead increasingly suppressed peaceful labor activism. “The Constitution states that the economy …

Iran Human Rights (IHR) – In 2020, murder was the most common charge and 211 of the 267 people executed had been sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind). Four juvenile offenders and eight women were among those executed for murder.  This article is an extract from Iran Human Rights’ 2020 Annual Report on the Death Penalty in Iran. Read PDF version here. Qisas executions …