gatestoneinstitute.org – The genuine power in Iran is made up of unelected, authoritarian, religious and fascist military elites who, for decades, have, frozen in place the revolutionary, theocratic ideology of the 1979 Islamic Revolution. The nomination mechanism for presidential candidates is itself part of the fraudulent process. Past elections have either been rigged in favor the hardliners, as in today’s …

Iran-HRM – With the clerical regime paving the way for Judiciary Chief Ebrahim Raisi, the preferred candidate of supreme leader Ali Khamenei, he runs virtually uncontested for president. Ali Khamenei appointed Ebrahim Raisi to head the Iranian regime’s judiciary on February 26, 2019. Raisi’s first two years as judiciary chief (2019-2021) have been marked by intensified repression and rights violations. Particularly women …

Iran-HRM – Saeed Masouri, the longest held political prisoner in Iran, sent an open letter from Raja’i Shahr Prison, reacting to the upcoming developments, including the clerical regime’s sham presidential election. Noting the increasing infighting within the regime, in part of the letter, Saeed Masouri wrote: “For years, this game spilt the blood of thousands of young Iranians in the …

realclearworld – Even the prison guards were horrified. In the summer of 1988, at the behest of Iran’s then-supreme leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the regime executed thousands of political dissidents incarcerated at 32 sites throughout the country. Saeed Amirkhizi, an inmate at Evin Prison at the time, recalls that even those guards “who had been tormenting and executing prisoners for years were …

jpost – Iranian dissidents claim the Austrian foreign minister Alexander Schallenberg ordered the Vienna police to ban Iranian dissidents from protesting against the nuclear talks with the Islamic Republic of Iran near the Grand Hotel Vienna where negotiations are being held.In a Wednesday Skype conversation with The Jerusalem Post, Atusa Sabagh, an Iranian dissident based in Vienna, who is part of …

CHRI – Iranian authorities should stop physically assaulting, harassing and threatening peaceful activists in Iran, including the prominent rights defender Narges Mohammadi, who told the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) that she fears for her life after being twice violently confronted by unidentified state security agents in less than a week. “I am extremely worried for my life,” Mohammadi …

Al-Monitor – Iran’s hard-line leadership has in the past few days gone to great lengths to push the public toward the ballot box in Friday’s presidential election to decide the “fate” of the country at “this critical juncture.” The competition, however, is seen as nothing short of an “engineered” race meant to guarantee a landslide for Ebrahim Raisi, the judiciary chief …

Al-monitor – Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei this week attempted to rally a generally apathetic electorate to turn out for Friday’s presidential election.  “The people’s support of the system must be shown to the enemy,” he declared, as polls signal that only about 40% of the Iranian electorate will vote. The final tally is expected to be well below the 73% turnout in the 2017 election, and …

Shabtabnews – In a statement the International Organisation to Preserve Human Rights (IOPHR) stated that : ” the qualification of presidential candidates in the current election, some of whom have criminal records for forgery and murder, and some of whom, are wanted in foreign courts for murder and other charges, with international arrest warrants against them clearly invalidates this election, …

RFL/RE – The French Foreign Ministry says that “significant disagreements persist” in talks between Tehran and world powers aimed at reviving a landmark 2015 nuclear deal.The ministry said in a statement on June 16 that the negotiations had become more difficult, and “this means courageous decisions are needed, which will have to be taken quickly, because we all share the …