Amnesty – The Iranian authorities must immediately quash the unjust convictions and death sentences of three young protesters who were subjected to gruesome torture including floggings, electric shocks, being hung upside down and death threats at gunpoint, Amnesty International said today. The organization learned that Revolutionary Guards agents raped one of them and sexually tortured another by placing ice on …

Iranwire – Iran’s leading Sunni cleric has spoken against the Islamic Republic’s extensive use of capital punishment, saying that the Iranian people are “against the death penalty.” “The Iranian nation condemns executions and doesn’t want executions anywhere in Iran or in the world,” Molavi Abdolhamid said in his Friday prayer sermon on January 27, amid a bloody crackdown by the …

Al-Arabia – Iran appointed a new police chief for Tehran on Friday following an armed attack on the Azerbaijani embassy in the capital, though it was unclear if the appointment was influenced by the attack. Abbas-Ali Mohammadian has been named as the new police commander of Tehran, replacing Hossein Rahimi, who will now head a police department tasked with countering “economic crimes,” …

RFL/RE – A gathering of the families of drug-related prisoners sentenced to death in Iran has turned violent as law enforcement and security officers tried to break up the demonstration in front of the Ghezel Hesar prison near the capital, Tehran. The U.S.-based activist group HRANA reported that the families, holding placards with the slogan “No To Execution,” demanded a reduction in …

RFL/RE – Iranian political activist Arash Sadeghi, who is already in prison serving a 19-year sentence despite being diagnosed with cancer, has been handed another sentence of more than five years for his participation in protests over the death of a young woman in police custody. Ramin Safarnia, Sadeghi’s lawyer, said on Twitter on January 25 that his client was also banned from living …

Iranwire – Iranian security forces have set up fortified security posts and dug trenches across the south-eastern Iranian city of Zahedan in an apparent attempt to prevent residents from holding protests after Friday Prayers on January 27, the opposition activist collective 1500tasvir reports. Each week on Fridays, hundreds of people are taking to the streets of Zahedan and other cities …

Iranwire – Tehran was again the scene of anti-government rallies on Thursday night as Iran’s ruling clerics intensify their crackdown against opposition voices and ongoing nationwide protests. Following a widespread power outage in Parand, southwest of Tehran, residents came to the streets and chanted slogans against the government. People in several nerigborhoods in Tehran itself, including Ponak, Bagh-e-Faiz, Tehran Pars …

VOA – A gunman has killed the head of security at Azerbaijan’s embassy in Iran. The shooter, armed with a Kalashnikov assault rifle, also wounded two other people. Police in Tehran say a suspect has been arrested. The suspect, according to Agence France-Presse, is an Iranian man who says his wife has been held at the embassy for nine months. …

VOA – Facing crippling economic sanctions, inflation and widespread social unrest, the Iranian government has boosted oil sales to China at a highly discounted price. Iran does not publish statistics about its oil sales, but analysts say Tehran has increased oil exports to more than 1.2 million barrels per day over the past three months. Iranian oil reaches the Chinese …

Al-Monitor – Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said Wednesday that France was meddling in his country’s affairs and taking a confrontational approach toward the Islamic Republic as tensions between the two sides worsen. In a phone call with his French counterpart Catherine Colonna, the Iranian minister warned that Tehran’s response will be “immediate and effective,” according to a report by the government-run IRNA …