Human rights

Al-Arabia – Iran’s state television aired a short video on Wednesday in which a Sweden-based Iranian Arab opposition figure that Tehran said it recently detained abroad appeared to confess to involvement in terrorist attacks. An Iranian lawmaker said earlier this month that Iranian intelligence agents captured Habib Chaab – also known as Habib Eseywed – abroad and took him to the capital …

iranwire.com – A Kurdish political prisoner serving a life sentence has been transferred from Kermanshah Prison to Yazd Prison, despite suffering complications from coronavirus and a decline in her overall health. It is the fourth time she has been transferred in the last six months. According to the Kurdistan Human Rights Network, Zeinab Jalalian, who is serving the longest prison term of any …

VOA – Iranian authorities have taken new steps to suppress dissent in a restive southwestern city days before the first anniversary of the start of nationwide protests that ended in a deadly government crackdown. A prosecutor’s office in the town of Behbahan in Khuzestan province summoned dozens of residents earlier this month to face questioning for alleged national security offenses, …

Iran-HRM – Political prisoners Mohammad Banazadeh Amirkhizi and Payam Shakiba, held in Evin Prison, have been denied medical treatment despite showing symptoms of COVID-19. The political prisoners have experienced fever, headache, lethargy, the loss of smell and taste since about a week ago. In addition to his age, 65-year-old Banazadeh Amirkhizi has serious medical conditions, including heart failure which puts him at …

RFL/RE – Nasrin Sotoudeh, an Iranian human rights lawyer who was temporarily released from prison last week, has tested positive for the coronavirus, her husband has said. Reza Khandan wrote on Facebook on November 11 that his wife contracted the virus at the Gharchak women’s prison in Tehran, where she was transferred last month. The conditions at the prison were …

iranwire.com- The International Chess Federation has threatened Iran with suspension because of its continuing refusal to allow Iranian chess players to compete with Israelis. Nigel Short, vice president of the International Chess Federation (FIDE) and the most accomplished British chess player of the twentieth century, has said that following the non-compliance of the Iranian Chess Federation with the commitments and statutes …

Iran-HRM – Student activist Soha Mortezaei was sentenced to six year in prison for holding a solitary sit-in outside Tehran University in protest to being banned from education for her political activities. The verdict which has ben announced to Mortezaei’s lawyer has been issued by notorious Judge Abolqaem Salavati of Branch 15 of the Revolutionary Court. The last hearing of …

Iran-HRM – Branch 28 of Iran’s Supreme Court has rejected a request for a retrial by political prisoner Saba Kord Afshari’s lawyers. She received a 15-year prison sentence, which was first reduced in the Court of Appeals but then again added to her prison term in May 2020. Saba Kord Afshari was arrested on June 1, 2019 and was handed …

Iran-HRM – Seventy-one Iranian men and women were summoned to Behbahan’s Public and Revolution Court on November 7, for “investigations” into their participation in July protests. The 71 citizens must appear in court within the next 5 days in Behbahan, a city in the southeastern Khuzestan Province.The men and women were charged with “insulting the Supreme Leader, disrupting public order …

Radiofarda – In an exclusive interview with Radio Farda, a young Iranian actress revealed that Iranian intelligence agents have threatened her with possible arrest and extradition 22-year-old Reyhaneh Parsa, a rising star in Iranian cinema, theater, and television in the past two years, left her homeland and currently lives in Turkey. Speaking to Radio Farda’s Babak Ghaffouri-Azar, the young actress …