Iranwire – The London-based ARTICLE 19 media freedom organization warns that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei’s recent call to further tighten internet restrictions represents a “renewed attack” on rights and freedoms, and signals a “new phase in digital repression” in Iran.  Addressing judicial officials during a meeting on June 27 amid what ARTICLE 19 described as an “already alarming deterioration of …

Iranwire – Iranian security forces have taken social science researcher Fatemeh Hasani into custody in the latest in a series of arrests targeting users of the popular social networking platform Clubhouse. Hasani was arrested at Mashhad airport on July 6 upon her return from a trip. The sociologist actively participated in various Clubhouse discussions in which she criticized government policies. …

Iranwire – A fact-finding mission mandated by the UN Human Rights Council has urged the Iranian authorities to end their brutal crackdown on peaceful protesters and halt the wave of executions, mass arrests and detentions that followed the eruption of nationwide protests last year. In its first oral update to the council in Geneva on July 5, the Independent International …

VOA – Iran says it obtained a court order for the seizure of the Richmond Voyager tanker after it collided with an Iranian vessel in the Gulf of Oman, according to the official IRINN news agency. The U.S. Navy said it had intervened to prevent Iran from seizing two commercial tankers in the Gulf of Oman on Wednesday. According to an announcement …

Amnesty – Mojahed (Abbas) Kourkouri is at grave risk of execution in relation to nationwide protests. In early April 2023, Iran’s judiciary announced that a Revolutionary Court in Ahvaz sentenced Mojahed (Abbas) Kourkouri to death for “enmity against God” (moharebeh), “corruption on earth” (efsad-e fel arz) and “armed rebellion against the state” (baghi). His grossly unfair sham trial was marred …

RFL/RE – Iran is still meting out harsh punishments on those suspected of involvement in mass protests, including “chilling” executions, a UN fact-finding mission said on July 5. Iran was rocked by demonstrations sparked by the September 16 death of Mahsa Amini, who had been arrested for allegedly violating Iran’s strict dress rule for women. In November, the UN Human …

Iranwire – Sima Moradbeigi, a 26-year-old woman from Bukan, West Azerbaijan province, fearlessly marched with other protesters throughout the streets of the Kurdish city on October 13, 2022, clinging to the hope of a revolution. She repeatedly evaded the bullets unleashed by security forces, and when she was finally shot, she refused to surrender.  An officer showed no mercy as …

Iranwire – An Iranian court has sentenced prominent university professor and political analyst Sadegh Zibakalam to one year in prison for a tweet criticizing the government’s response to a wave of poisonings at girls’ school.   Zibakalam said that Branch 1057 of Tehran Criminal Court sentenced him on June 27 for “spreading lies with the intention of manipulating public opinion.”  The …

Iranwire – A Revolutionary Court in the northern Iranian city of Qaimshahr has sentenced 14 members of the Baha’i religious minority to a combined 31 years behind bars, IranWire reports.  The group was convicted of “deviant educational or propaganda activities contrary to and disturbing the Sharia of Islam.”  Sanaz Hekmat Sho’ar and Bita Haghighi each received a sentence of three …

Iranwire – On June 27, 1981, exactly one day before a powerful bomb went off at the headquarters of the Islamic Republican Party in Tehran, killing 74 leading officials of the Islamic Republic, an assassination attempt targeted today’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei as he was making a speech in a mosque. A bomb placed in a tape recorder exploded in …