Human rights

Al-Arabia – New charges of “propaganda against the system” made by Iran against British-Iranian national Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a week after she finished serving a five-year sentence, are “unacceptable,” Britain said Sunday. “It is unacceptable that Iran has chosen to continue a second wholly arbitrary case against Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe,” Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab wrote on Twitter. “She must be allowed to return …

VOA – British-Iranian charity worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe appeared before Iran’s Revolutionary Court Sunday, facing charges of “propaganda against the system.”  “Legally, the court should announce the verdict in a week, but it is up to the judge. I am very hopeful that she will be acquitted,” said her lawyer Hojjat Kermani.  Zaghari-Ratcliffe was arrested in 2016 on charges that she was plotting to overthrow Iran’s government, a …

Iran-HRM – The Iranian regime’s maritime forces opened fire on a group of fule traders, killing a young man in a southern Iranian port on March 12 and pursued other boats that fled the area. Folowing the fatal shooting of Baluch fuel traders, angry locals staged a protest gathering near the Strait of Hormuz in southern Iran on Friday. The protesters burned …

Iran-HRM – A Revolutionary Court in Iran has sentenced four followers of the Baha’i faith to a total of 12 years in prison. The 28th Branch of the Tehran Revolutionary Court has sentenced Mona Mehrabi, Elham Kerempisheh, Afsaneh Yadegar Ardestani and Ehsanollah Yadegar Ardestani to a total of 12 years of prison. The four men and women were tried in …

euobserver.com – China, Eritrea, Libya, North Korea, Russia, and South Sudan are to be stigmatised as home to the world’s worst human-rights abusers under new EU sanctions. The move will cover some 11 officials and four entities in total from the six countries. Russia is the EU’s main gas supplier (Photo: consilium.europa.eu) The Chinese officials are linked to Beijing’s persecution …

VOA – An exiled Iranian Arab rights activist has revealed that three minority Arab dissidents executed by Iran’s Islamist authorities last month showed signs of torture before their death sentences were carried out. In a Wednesday interview with VOA Persian from London, researcher Karim Dahimi said dissidents Jasem Heidary, Ali Khasraji and Hossein Silawi had bruises when relatives were given …

HRW – Statement to Member States of the United Nations Human Rights Council : Your Excellency, We, the undersigned Iranian and international human rights organizations, call on your government to support the renewal of the mandate of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran at the 46th session of the Human Rights Council. We …

CHRI -Iran’s judicial system has a long, documented history of sentencing detainees held on politically motivated charges to “exile”—prolonged banishment to a remote, underdeveloped town or city far from the detainee’s residence—after the completion of a prison sentence. The sentence is intended to isolate prisoners as well as prevent them from interacting with their friends, family, and giving interviews to news outlets, …

Iranwire – Civil rights activist Sepideh Gholian has been transferred from Evin Prison in Tehran to a remote facility in Bushehr. A source close to the case told IranWire that the 25-year-old had been escorted out of Evin Prison at midnight on Wednesday, March 10, and arrived at Bushehr the following day. They said she was in handcuffs and chains …

Iranwire – Mehdi Narimani, a young man imprisoned in Greater Tehran Penitentiary for not being able to pay his wife’s dowry, had his 30th birthday on Wednesday, March 3. Three days later he died due to medical neglect. The young inmate was unwell and had been given the wrong medication by prison staff. When he lost consciousness, the lack of resuscitation …