Human rights

Iranwire – A revolutionary court in the Iranian city of Bojnurd has sentenced a Baha’i family to a combined total of four years and eight months in prison, a human rights website reported.  Shayan Senaei has been sentenced to a two-year and two-month prison term, along with a 50 million tomans ($1,000) fine. His brother, Faran Senaei, received a two-year …

Iranwire – The Iranian authorities have escalated their crackdown on dissent at universities in recent days, arresting and summoning many students and academics across the country. The clampdown does not spare Iranian students studying abroad, with reports saying that those who return home are being pressured by security agencies and facing legal cases.  The confiscation of passports, detention and repeated …

Iranwire – A 35-year-old Iranian man died in custody due to torture following his arrest eight days ago, a human rights organization says. Peyman Abdi was apprehended on January 2 by the intelligence department in the predominantly Kurdish city of Kermanshah, and later fell into a coma, the Norway-based group Hengaw reported on January 10.  It said Abdi passed away …

Iranwire – The Tehran Revolutionary Court has sentenced a 71-year-old man to five years in prison over his alleged “financial connection” with the People’s Mujahedin Organization of Iran (MEK or PMOI). In April 2022, Mir Yousef Younesi’s son Ali, a former astronomy Olympiad student at Sharif University of Technology, was handed a 16-year prison sentence for allegedly being connected to MEK, a …

Iranwire – The Iranian authorities have sentenced Manouchehr Bakhtiari, the father of a 27-year-old man killed in a crackdown on protests in November 2019, to 18 years in prison and 74 lashes. The human rights network HRANA reported that Bakhtiari, who is incarcerated in Qazvin prison, was informed of his sentence on January 9. The man was given a 10-year …

Iranwire – Iranian judiciary authorities have summoned Mehdi Towhidi, a protester arrested on the first anniversary of Mahsa Amini’s death, to court for his final defense.  According to a reliable source, Towhidi faces charges of “gathering and collusion to commit a crime against domestic and foreign security,” “facilitating the means to commit a crime,” and “being a member of a …

Iranwire – An Iranian court has sentenced former bodybuilding champion Khaled Pirzadeh to five years and eight months imprisonment on charges of “gathering and collusion” and “propaganda against the system.” The human rights network HRANA reported that Branch 26 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court acquitted Pirzadeh of the charges of “spreading lies” and “acquiring illegal wealth.”  If the sentence is …

RFL/RE – The lashes to Roya Heshmati’s body have triggered renewed condemnation of Iran’s harsh punishments against women for alleged crimes against “morality.” But the official reason for carrying out the flogging is also being questioned, while the 33-year-old Kurdish-Iranian woman now faces the double jeopardy of having to defend herself against smears to her name. Heshmati announced on Facebook …

RFL/RE -An Iranian-German citizen imprisoned in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison has been released on a furlough, though she has to wear an electronic ankle bracelet that her daughter said makes the situation more like house arrest. Mariam Claren said in a social media post on January 9 that her mother, Nahid Taghavi, was on temporary release, which she hopes “is an important …

Iranwire – Authorities in Tehran are using children to enforce mandatory headscarf rules for women in the city’s metro stations, IranWire has learned.   The information was confirmed by Ali Shafakhah, the head of the Skoda Children’s Rights Committee, who said that “the authorities have now hired children as hijab enforcers.” Shafakhah wrote on the social media platform X that he …