Human rights

VOA – An Iranian-American businessman and his 80-year-old father have each been sentenced to 10 years in prison in Iran for espionage, Tehran’s prosecutor said Tuesday. The Mizan news agency reported Siamak Namazi and his father, Baquer Namazi, both dual citizens, were convicted of “cooperating with the hostile American government.” Siamak Namazi was detained in October 2015 by the Islamic …

Iranhumanrights.org – In an open letter from Evin Prison prominent human rights defender Narges Mohammadi has strongly rejected the Appeals Court’s decision upholding her harsh prison sentence, describing it as a “tyrannical” way to silence her activism. “I am a 44-year-old woman condemned to 22 years in prison by the Islamic Republic of Iran and I know very well that …

Iranhumanrights.org – Despite statements from some Iranian officials doubting the value of capital punishment, no action has been taken to end or reduce the high number of executions in the country, Nobel Peace laureate Shirin Ebadi told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran. “Unfortunately, for years Iran’s judicial officials have repeated statements in response to protests by the …

Iranhumanrights.org – An attorney has been arrested in western Iran for wearing a T-shirt honoring the Green Movement, an informed source told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran. “Mohammad Najafi was arrested on October 11 [2016] in Shazand, Markazi Province, by agents of the Intelligence Ministry for appearing in public with a T-shirt that had ‘Ashura 88’ printed …

Iranhumanrights.org – A few months after the Iranian government launched the first phase of its “national information network” (NIN), many questions still surround Iran’s domestically hosted, state-controlled and censored internet. In this article, the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran discusses ten critical questions about NIN, the country’s most expensive internet-related project. Progress on NIN reflects the continuation of …

Iranhumanrights.org – The execution order against Zeinab Sekaanvand Lankarani, who was married off at 15-years-old to the man she allegedly killed two years later, is being challenged by her public defender. Lankarani, imprisoned at Urmia Central Prison in northwestern Iran, is accused of killing her husband when she was 17 years old. “Zeinab admitted to the murder while she was …

PayvandNews- The International Volleyball Federation (FIVB) should cease awarding Iran the right to host FIVB international tournaments until the country ensures that female spectators can freely attend volleyball matches in the country, Human Rights Watch said in a letter to Ary Graca, the sports federation’s leader. Graca was re-elected as the FIVB’s president at the sports federation’s 35th World Congress …

IBTimes – A group of Iranian schoolgirls were reportedly flogged because their parents owed less than £7 ($8.50) in tuition fees. At least 10 girls are believed to have been punished by education authorities in the Mokhtarabad village in the country’s southern province of Kerman when it discovered their families could not afford to pay 30,000 toumans in fees. The students …

Iranhumanrighst.org – Families of the detainees who died after they were tortured in the Kahrizak Detention Center in 2009 and survivors have told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran that their quest for justice has gotten nowhere. Some of the cases brought by the families resulted in the conviction of low-level agents while other cases were closed with …

Iranhumanrights.org – Four months after her husband was unexpectedly forced to begin serving his 19-year prison sentence for his peaceful activism, Golrokh Ebrahimi Iraee has refused to abide by a verbal order via telephone to report to Evin Prison to begin serving a six-year prison sentence for writing an unpublished story about burning the Koran and for her Facebook posts. …