Iranwire – An Iranian mathematician and philosophy lecturer has rejected his award for the country’s book of the year “in protest at censorship” in Iran. Kaave Lajevardi said in a post on his blog on March 15 that he informed officials of his decision after being named as the joint winner of the prize for his translation of John Locke’s book “An Essay Concerning …

Iranwire – Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Anousheh Ashouri are reportedly on their way back to the UK after years of captivity in Iran. News of the dual nationals’ transfer to Imam Khomeini Airport was broken this morning by Nazanin’s local member of parliament in London, Tulip Siddiq. “Nazanin is at the airport in Tehran and on her way home,” the MP wrote on Twitter shortly after …

Iranwire – IranWire has obtained a recently-recorded video in which Faezeh Hashemi re-iterates growing alarm over Tehran’s relationship with the Kremlin in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In the film, activist and daughter of the late president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani warns that by prioritizing close relations with Russia and China, “we are getting closer and closer to becoming a colony: …

Iranwire – The Raisi administration’s 2022-23 budget bill has allocated more than 54.8 trillion tomans (US$13bn) to “maintaining public order and security”: 25 times the amount ring-fenced for environmental protection, and six times the budget for addressing the country’s urgent water crisis. Research by Iran Open Data found the IRGC’s Shahid Ebrahimi program, whose stated mission is to “strengthen security infrastructure”, had …

VOA — Russia said on Tuesday it has written guarantees it can carry out its work as a party to the Iran nuclear deal, suggesting Moscow could allow a revival of the tattered 2015 pact to go forward. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s comments appeared to signal Moscow may have backed off its previous view that Western sanctions imposed on Russia …

Amnesty – In response to reports that Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Anoosheh Ashoori have been released from detention in Iran and are about to leave the country, Sacha Deshmukh, Amnesty International UK’s CEO, said: “This is fantastic news, but it hasn’t come a moment too soon.   “Nazanin and Anoosheh should never have been detained in the first place – they were …

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO) – Allameh Tabataba’i University student, Hasti Amiri has been sentenced to a year imprisonment and social bans for “propaganda against the system” charges for which Twitter posts against the death penalty and participating in student protests have been cited. Iran Human Rights condemns the increasing repression in Iran and calls for the immediate revocation of Hasti …

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO) – Hafizollah Rakhshani, a Baluch man sentenced to qisas for murder, was executed in Zahedan Central Prison. According to Hal Vash, a Baluch man was executed in Zahedan Central Prison on the morning of March 13. His identity has been reported as 30-year-old Hafizollah Rakhshani who was a Shir Abad resident in Zahedan and had been sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) …

Al-Monitor – Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said Moscow “will by no means block” a potential agreement that is meant to resurrect the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). “There will be absolutely no link between the developments in Ukraine … and the Vienna talks,” the Iranian foreign minister declared during a joint presser …

Shabtabnews – In a statement IOPHR stated: “Terrified by the emergence of a democratic and federal system committed to the fundamental principles of human rights near its western borders, Tehran’s religious leaders by their recent attack are trying to destabilize Iraq. All in the hope that by attacking a system of democratization that has a potential to be a successful …