Human rights

Iranwire – Khosro Alikordi, a prominent Iranian lawyer who has represented political prisoners and their families, has been banned from practicing law for two years, amid a crackdown on legal advocacy in the country. Writing on his social media account on January 16, Alikordi said that the ban was decided by the Khorasan Bar Association’s disciplinary court.  In December last …

Iranwire – Concerns are mounting over the fate of Azeri journalist and activist Ebrahim Savalan Rashidi, who has been in custody in northwestern Iran for more than two weeks. No clear charges or reason for his arrest have been announced yet. According to the Association for the Defense of Azerbaijani Political Prisoners In Iran, Rashidi’s family received a 30-second phone …

Iranwire – The families of four Iranian Kurdish political prisoners who have been condemned to death on charges of “collaboration with Israel” have been threatened by Iranian security institutions for seeking information about their fate or whereabouts. Mohsen Mazloum, Pezhman Fatehi, Vafa Azarbar and Mohammad (Hajir) Faramarzi are members of the Komala Party of Iranian Kurdistan. The four men aged …

CHRI – Three women prisoners of conscience in Iran, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Narges Mohammadi and journalists Niloufar Hamedi and Elahe Mohammadi, are confronting additional prison sentences on sham charges. The state persists in its attempts to coerce women into submission for the mere exercise of basic rights, said the Center for Human Rights in Iran. “These prisoners of conscience face relentless abuse …

Iranwire – A Kurdish political prisoner jailed over his participation in Iran’s 2022 uprising attempted suicide in protest of his long-term prison sentence, according to a group that monitors rights violations in the country’s Kurdish regions. The Norway-based group Hengaw quoted an informed source as saying on January 16 that Vahid Chavaran was hospitalized in critical condition in Ilam after …

Iranwire – An Iranian court has sentenced two Iranian women activists to six years in prison on charges related to their political activities, according to a U.S.-based human rights network. HRANA said on January 16 that the Revolutionary Court in Karaj, near Tehran, also ordered Maryam Jalal Hosseini and Fatemeh (Mojgan) Tadrisi to spend two years in exile after their …

Iranwire – Iran’s Supreme Court has overturned the death sentence imposed on a police officer accused of killing a protester during the 2022 uprising.  Mehran Samak was fatally shot in the head in Bandar Anzali on the evening of November 29, 2022, amid protests that followed the match between the US and Iranian national football teams in the World Cup …

RFL/RE – Sweden’s Foreign Ministry says a Swedish national was detained in Iran, the third of its citizens to be held in custody in the Middle Eastern country. The ministry said on January 15 that the person in custody is in his 20s and has been held since “the early days of January.” It gave no further details. Tehran has …

RFL/RE – The violent arrest of a woman over the weekend in western Tehran for her defiance of the mandatory hijab law and for resisting authorities as they impounded her vehicle has highlighted animosity over the government’s enforcement of the Islamic dress code. Video of the woman’s arrest, which has gone viral on social media in recent days, shows her …

Iran-HRM – Iran judiciary has upheld the death sentences of ten political prisoners. The ten prisoners are awaiting the implementation of their sentences. The families of some of these prisoners held a sit-in outside the Evin Prison and demanded a halt to the execution of their loved ones. The names of these ten political prisoners are as follows. Mojahed Kourkouri, …