Human rights

Iranwire – Keyvan Rahimian, a member of Iran’s Baha’i religious minority, has been sentenced to a total of nine years in prison.  The Tehran Revolutionary Court sentenced Rahimian to five years’ imprisonment, six years of social rights deprivation and a 50-million-toman ($920) fine for engaging in “deviant educational or propaganda activities contrary to Islamic Sharia.” He was also handed a …

Iranwire – The appeals court of Isfahan province has rejected Iranian rapper Toomaj Salehi’s appeal against his one-year prison sentence, his lawyer says. “Our appeal against the initial one-year imprisonment verdict was dismissed by Branch 17 of the Isfahan court, making the sentence final,” lawyer Amir Raisian told the semi-official ILNA news agency.  “We will continue to explore other avenues …

RFL/RE – Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Court has handed death sentences to four ethnic Baluchis on charges of “baghy,” meaning insurrection against a legitimate imam and the Islamic ruler of the country. The individuals, identified as Eido Shahbakhsh, Abdul-Ghani Shahbakhsh, Abdul-Rahim Qanbarzehi Gorgij, and Suleiman Shahbakhsh, were implicated in what the court describes as “forming anti-revolutionary groups and being members of said groups.”The …

RFL/RE – Iranian lawyer Mahdokht Damghanpor, who had been critical of the judiciary and pointed out flaws in the case presented against executed protester Mohammad Qobadlou, has been summoned before a court for questioning. Amir Raesian, another lawyer for Mohammad Qobadlou, said Damghanpor was summoned to the Media Court, where on February 12 he presented relevant documents it had requested. “We invited …

Iranwire – An Iranian-British dual citizen has been imprisoned in Iran for six months, the activist HRANA news agency reported on February 14.  Shahram Namavar, who holds citizenship from both Iran and the UK, has been held in Tehran’s Evin prison since his arrest in August 2023. His legal status remains uncertain. There has been no official information about the …

Iranwire – A member of Iran’s Baha’i religious minority has presented herself at Vakil Abad prison in the northeastern city of Mashhad to start serving her one-year prison sentence. Branch 1 of the Mashhad Revolutionary Court handed down the sentence against Noushin Mesbah in October last year after convicting her of “membership in a group with the intent of disrupting …

Iranwire – The Iranian authorities are not implementing the Law on Protection of Disabled Persons, claiming insufficient funds, even though six years have passed since its enactment. There are no accurate statistics on people with disabilities in Iran. The Welfare Organization says 1.6 million of them have been referred to this entity, but the real figure is believed to be …

Iranwire – Fifteen agents from the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence raided the home of a Baha’i man, Babak Zamani, in the northern city of Qaimshahr on the morning of February 12, IranWire reports.  The agents had a search warrant in the name of Zamani’s wife, Maryam Zabihi,  Witnesses reported that the agents behaved aggressively toward Zabihi, while her son, Bahamin …

Armita Pavir’s voice trembles with emotion as she speaks from behind the walls of Tabriz prison. This university student has been on hunger strike for the past 17 days – her third over the past five months.  In an audio file obtained by IranWire, Pavir expresses her fears that the prison authorities might put into execution their repeated threats to transfer …

Iranwire – Iranian authorities have sentenced a young Baluch man, Mohammad Narooie, to 12 years in prison for alleged “membership in anti-Islamic Republic groups.”  According to Haalvsh, an organization that monitors rights violations against Iran’s Baluch minority, the alleged actions leading to this charge remain undisclosed, raising concerns about the fairness of the trial. Narooie, a 22-year-old resident of Zahedan, …