Human rights

RFL/RE – A Revolutionary Court in Iran has sentenced a law professor to seven years in prison after convicting him of “cooperating with an enemy state.” The U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) reported on February 8 that Reza Eslami, a professor at Tehran’s Shahid Beheshti University, had been also banned from teaching and leaving the country. The sentence, …

Iranwire – The lead protagonists in this film are Kurdistan and the kolbars of Kurdistan. In one of Iran’s most remote, deprived and little-understood regions, every day hundreds of people – from 12-year-old boys to men in their 70s – strap up to 50 kilos’ worth of goods to their backs and set out on foot, singing, on the days-long …

Iranwire – Massoud Kordpour, a human rights activist and editor-in-chief of Mokrian News Agency, describes new IranWire documentary They Shoot Kulbars, Don’t They? as a short but clever account of the history of poverty, deprivation, and discrimination in Kurdistan. *** Massoud Kordpour lives in Iran and currently resides in Bukan, in West Azerbaijan province. The new documentary They Shoot Kolbars, Don’t They? reminded him, he tells …

Iran Human Rights (IHR) – A male and a female prisoner sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder, have been executed in Ardabil Central Prison. There is reason to believe that the female prisoner may have been a juvenile offender. According to Iran Human Rights, a female and a male prisoner sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder, were executed at Ardabil Central Prison …

Amnesty – Prisoner of conscience Hamed Gharehoghlani is suffering from symptoms that precede dangerous epileptic seizures due to the authorities’ persistent refusal to provide him with specialized health care and medication. He appealed his sentence of 14 years and one month’s imprisonment to the Supreme Court on 24 January 2021. He must be released immediately and unconditionally. View report in …

Iran-HRM – Iran has imposed harsh sentences on a political prisoner and her son and daughter.  According to a knowledgeable source Zahra Safaei, her daughter Prastoo Moeini and her son Mohammad Masoud Moini were handed their sentences by the Branch 23 of Tehran’s Revolutionary Court presided over by judge Mohammad Mehdi Shahmirzadi. Zahra Safaei has been sentenced to five years …

Iran-HRM – Two Iranian dissidents imprisoned since 2017 were sentenced to prison by the Revolutionary Court of Tehran in connection with a new case against them while they were in prison. According to the verdict issued by Branch 29 of Tehran’s Revolutionary Court, Mohammad Bannazadeh Amirkhizi and Majid Asadi have been each sentenced to one year in prison on the charge of …

Iran-HRM – A Kurd prisoner who is more than 70% disabled was brutalized and humiliated on the order of prison officials in Urmia.Akbar Rashidi, 34, has been serving a 21-year prison sentence in Urmia Central Prison in northwest Iran. An informed source said on Wednesday, February 3, “Akbar Rashidi, a 34-year-old prisoner with a disability of over 70%, set himself …

Iranwire – In a recent announcement, senior Afghan officials declared they have identified 34 human trafficking networks operating in the first nine months of 2020, and arrested 60 people on human trafficking-related charges. The Afghan Justice Minister Fazl Ahmad Manavi said some of the defendants have since been sentenced to several years in prison. Although Afghans have represented the world’s …

Iran-HRM – Iran’s intelligence and security forces have summoned and detained at least 100 Kurdish citizens in what appears to be an escalating crackdown Iran’s Kurdish minority. Since January 6, Iranian authorities have targeted scores of Kurdish people including activists, environmentalists, writers, university students, and ordinary individuals with no track record of activism. Nine of the detainees are women. The …