Human rights

VOA – Iran has temporarily released French-Iranian academic Fariba Adelkhah, who has been in jail after being convicted of security breaches, her lawyer said Saturday on Twitter. “Fariba Adelkhah has come out [of prison] on leave with an electronic ankle bracelet,” Saeid Dehghan said in a tweet, without giving any other details of the release. There was no immediate official …

Iran-HRM – A female political prisoner held ad Tabriz Prison has tested positive for Covid-19 disease. Masoumeh Senobari contracted the virus after the authorities refused to quarantine infected prisoners. An informed source about the condition of this political prisoner said: “Masoumeh Sanobari coughs badly. She also has a high fever, and suffers from fore throat, dry mouth, lung pain and …

Shabtabnews – In an open letter the IOPHR draws the attentions of Javaid Rehmanthe the United Nations Human Rights Rapporteur for Iran to the “wave of widespread detentions, without any explanation from the Iranian security officials, and the emergence of a growing dissatisfaction amongst Iranian citizens. Especially, amongst the millions of Gonabadi Sufis.” The letter also points to the cases …

gatestoneinstitute.org – “One day, I heard screams, shouting, and pleas for help in the police department…. I witnessed two officers who were dressed in unofficial uniform cursing and hitting Navid with batons and metal pipes with no mercy. They would tell him: ‘the truth is whatever we say, will you write what we are saying or not?’ Navid was… begging: …

VOA – An Iranian political prisoner suffering from a panic disorder has been sent against his will to a psychiatric clinic after prison interference with his medical treatment led to his partial paralysis, according to a friend and family member of the dissident. In a Tuesday interview with VOA Persian from Iran, the friend of dissident Behnam Mahjoubi said authorities …

Radiozamaneh – you’re brought there under article 16, they’d rough you up. I saw them kill a guy with my own eyes. It was four years ago in a mandatory rehab center in Khavar-Shahr. The guy wanted out, he wanted to leave, so he drank some bleach. The next day the staff found out and started beating him. They beat …

CHRI – Rushed Convictions Show Judiciary Willing to Do Bidding of Intelligence Forces State Responds to Growing Societal Discontent with Intensified Efforts to Silence All Dissent October 1, 2020—In a blatant move to keep political prisoners in Iran behind bars despite completing their sentences, judicial authorities in Iran are increasingly issuing new charges and pushing through rushed convictions without any …

RFL/RE – Protests have erupted in several Iranian cities, including the capital, Tehran, and and the northwestern city of Tabriz, in support of Azerbaijan in its conflict with Armenia over the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh. Videos posted online appear to show dozens demonstrating in the streets while chanting slogans in Azeri, including “Karabakh is ours. It will remain ours.” Ethnic …

RFL/RE – A Belarusian pro-democracy campaigner and an imprisoned Iranian human rights lawyer have been awarded the Right Livelihood Award, a prize sometimes called the “alternative Nobel,” along with activists from the United States and Nicaragua. The Stockholm-based Right Livelihood Foundation on October 1 cited human rights activist Ales Byalyatski and his Vyasna (Spring) nongovernmental organization “for their resolute struggle for the …

Iran-HRM – September saw the third wave of the coronavirus sweeping across Iran. The scale of the disaster is such that the regime is no longer able to deny it. The Iranian regime’s deputy Minister of Health asserted: “The situation we have is beyond the wave. We are engulfed in a stormy sea. It is meaningless to speak of different …