RFL/RE — Shortly before midnight on August 6, 1992, police in Bonn entered the small, cluttered apartment of Fereydoun Farrokhzad, a renowned Iranian entertainer, poet, and dissident who had fled his homeland after the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Farrokhzad’s neighbors in the apartment block on Riemann Street, in the southwest of the former West German capital, had been alarmed that Farrokhzad’s …

RFL/RE – As Tehran and world powers seeking to revive the moribund 2015 nuclear deal resumed talks in Vienna, the United States warned that it would take “additional measures” to block Iran’s ability to earn revenue if diplomacy over the country’s nuclear program fails.“Given the ongoing advances in Iran’s nuclear program, [President Joe Biden] has asked his team to be …

Iranwire – Labor activist Hirad Pirbodaghi is still under pressure, having been held and interrogated on Ward 209 of Evin Prison for more than 35 days. His mother Setareh Jalali has been sat in front of the prison court for much of the past week, demanding an update on what’s happening to him. Pirbodaghi, an editorial board member for the …

Iranwire – On Wednesday, December 9, the names of three Iranians accused of playing a key role in state-sponsored hostage-taking were read out by British parliamentarians as part of a drive to see them sanctioned in the UK. One of these names was Ali Rezvani. Perhaps the man born Kambiz Rezvani Ghamishloo, an interrogator-journalist for Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, was hoping that like …

Iranwire –Weeks after his arreston September 1, 2021, and later his temporary release, Iranian Baha’i citizen Arsalan Yazdani and his family continue to experience threats and pressure from Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence. Yazdani was released after 45 days on a one billion toman bail. The charges against him have not yet been announced. Yazdani was released from Evin Prison after 45 days, on a …

Iranwire – Coronavirus is yet again tearing through Evin Prison and two members of the Iranian Writers’ Association have come down with Covid-19, a political prisoner told IranWire in a phone call. Baktash Abtin and Keyvan Bajan were both summoned to begin their six- and three-and-a-half-year sentences in September 2020, while the pandemic was still raging. Abtin was transferred to Tehran’s Taleghani …

WSJ- There’s more to Iran’s high-tech arsenal than prospective nuclear weapons. The regime in Tehran also uses social media, including Twitter , to divide, defame, disable and demoralize its domestic opponents. Such warfare is often difficult to track, and it is hindering the struggle for freedom. Iran is seeing a rise in mass protests and other acts of civil disobedience, …

VOA – World powers will assess over the next few days whether Iran is serious in nuclear negotiations after it indicated it was ready to continue talks based on texts that had been agreed at the last round in June, a European source said on Friday. Talks on reviving the 2015 Iran nuclear deal resumed on Thursday with the United …

Iran-HRM – On World Human Rights Day, Iran Human Rights Monitor overviews the human rights situation in Iran in 2021. The following information reflects a small part of the ongoing reality. The clerical regime’s lack of transparency and censorship makes it difficult to access information. Iran Human Rights Monitor calls on the international community to condemn and hold the Iranian regime …

Amnesty – To mark Human Rights Day, Amnesty International today launches its first-ever Persian-language website to increase access to information on rights violations in Iran amid an escalating crisis of impunity – and what amounts to an all-out assault on human rights across the country. The new website offers an overview of Amnesty International’s calls for justice, equality and freedom around the …