Human rights

Radiofarda – The Islamic Republic’s Court of Appeals recently upheld the sentences of Rev. Victor Bet-Tamraz and his wife Shamiram Issavi. They were sentenced to ten and five years in prison respectively Article 18 a website covering news on minority rights in Iran. The couple was charged with “evangelical activity,” “acting against national security by launching and running house churches.” …

Iran-HRM – Infected labor activist Jafar Azimzadeh has started a hunger strike since Sunday August 16, after being transferred from Evin Prison to Gohardasht Prison (Rajai Shahr) in Karaj instead of a hospital. Mr. Azimzadeh contracted the corona virus while in Evin Prison. After a clinic doctor diagnosed that he was an emergency case, prison authorities transferred him out of …

Iran-HRM – Iranian authorities executed five people including a woman on Tuesday, August 18, 2020, in the Central Prison of Mashhad, known as Vakilabad Prison. Three of those executed are identified as Ardeshir Bahadori, Ali Gholami Aghuyi, and Marzieh Ebrahimipour. Their executions have not yet been announced by the state media at the time of publishing this news. All the …

Iran Human Rights (IHR) – Mohammad Reza Haddadi, a juvenile offender imprisoned in Shiraz Central Prison (also known as Adel Abad) has spent 18 years on death row. Over the last week, there have been reports on social media that Mohammad Reza is due to be executed imminently, which his lawyer and family have denied. Hossein Ahmadi-Niaz, one of Mohammad …

Radiofarda – The attorney of outspoken dissident Mohammad Nourizad said on Tuesday that his client has been sentenced to prison, lashes and exile for his presence in front of a courthouse in Mashhad last year where another dissident was on trial. In a tweet, prominent lawyer Mohammad-Hossein Aghasi wrote that his client’s sentence includes eight months in prison, one year …

CHRI – Imprisoned human rights attorney Payam Derafshan is in poor health and in need of hospitalization, his lawyer Saeed Dehghan informed the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) on August 17, 2020. Denial of proper medical care is routine in Iran’s prisons, especially in the case of political prisoners, including in “life-threatening situations” according to UN experts. On June 8, 2020, …

Iran Human Rights (IHR) – A prisoner on death row for “narcotics” charges has been executed at Zanjan Central Prison. According to Iran Human Rights, yesterday morning, August 18, a prisoner was executed in Zanjan Central Prison. His identity has been established as Ahmad Mehravar, who had been on death row. An informed source told IHR: “He was arrested in …

Iran Human Rights (IHR) – According to a list obtained by IHR, 77 protesters detained during the November 2019 protests are currently detained at the Greater Tehran Penitentiary (Fashafuyeh). Of those, 70 have been sentenced to between 1-9 years in prison, three have been sentenced to death and one is awaiting a conviction of moharebeh (waging war against God) which …

Iran Human Rights (IHR) – Two months after the arrest of Sharmin Meymandinejad, the founder of the Imam Ali Popular-Student Relief Society (Imam Ali Society), the Ministry of Interior has set a 20-day deadline for the NGO to change its structure. A hundred civil society activists recently issued a statement protesting the “deterrent and narrow-minded treatment of NGOs” and called …

gatestoneinstitute.org – The globe’s most influential Muslim international forum, the 57-member Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), in a resolution drafted in March last year, in fact commended China’s efforts in its care of the country’s Muslims. The silence of the oil-rich kingdom of Saudi Arabia is, in part, explained by the at least $75 billion of investment deals reached in …