VOA – Iranian dissidents living inside the Islamic republic and in exile went on a hunger strike Thursday to protest a surge of hangings in Iran, which included most recently a participant in the 2022 protest movement who activists say had mental health difficulties. Led by jailed 2023 Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi, those going on the one-day hunger …

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO) – Ahmad Asgarat, a man on death row for murder, was executed with political prisoners Farhad Ghobadlu and Farhad Salimi in Ghezelhesar Prison. According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, another man was executed in Ghezelhesar Prison in Karaj on 23 January. His identity has been established as Ahmad Asgarat who sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder. …

CHRI – The surge in executions in Iran has triggered a passionate call from Iranian civil society, amplified by a mass hunger strike initiated by women prisoners of conscience in Iran, to abolish the death penalty. This powerful appeal, led by women, including the imprisoned Nobel Peace Laureate Narges Mohammadi, has gained momentum following the executions of political prisoners Mohammad Ghobadlou and Farhad Salimi this …

Al-Arabia – Iran has supplied Sudan’s army with combat drones, taking sides in a disastrous civil war fueled by proxies keen for Red Sea access that has displaced millions and risks destabilizing the wider region, according to senior Western officials. Iran’s intervention in the nine-month conflict on the side of the military, which has lost swathes of territory to a …

iranintl – The Pentagon has denied media reports that the Biden administration may be considering a full withdrawal of American troops from Syria in 2024. A report in Foreign Policy Wednesday suggested that “the White House is no longer invested in sustaining a mission that it perceives as unnecessary,” quoting “four sources within the Defense and State departments”. But a Pentagon …

iranintl – Iran’s state television has announced a controversial plan to allow the parliamentary election candidates to place campaign ads on TV for hefty amounts of cash. The March 1 election is strictly limited to ultraconservative candidates with minimal participation from other conservatives. Reformist and moderate candidates are effectively barred from running. Voter turnout is also expected to be extremely …

Iranwire – Last week, the police commander in the central city of Qom, Mohammadreza Mirheidari, stated that warning messages had been sent to the owners of 74,000 cars in the past 10 months for hijab violations. Mirheidari also reported that 13,000 cars had been impounded because their occupants opposed mandatory hijab.  Women residing in the most religious or traditional cities …

Iranwire – Iran’s former Justice Minister Mostafa Pourmohammadi has been disqualified from running in the upcoming election for the Assembly of Experts, a chamber of theologians that appoints the Islamic Republic’s supreme leader and oversees his work. The Borna news agency reported the news on January 25, a day after former President Hassan Rouhani was barred from standing again in the March …

Iranwire – The Supreme Court of the Islamic Republic of Iran has upheld the death penalty for Yousef Ahmadi, a Kurdish political prisoner accused of “waging armed rebellion.” Ahmadi is currently held in Sanandaj prison, in Kurdistan province. According to reports, three other Sunni Kurdish defendants in the same case — Mohammad Karimi, Baset Karimi and Mohammad Faizi — received …

Iranwire – The United States is offering up to $15 million for information regarding Hossein Hatefi Ardakani, an Iranian businessman alleged to have helped acquire technology for the Islamic Republic of Iran’s weapons programs. “Since 2014, Ardakani has used his network of intermediary companies, including Malaysia- and Hong Kong-based front companies and UAE logistics businesses, to procure and to facilitate …