Human rights

Radiozamaneh – A court in Yemen has upheld the death sentence of Hamed bin Haydara. Bin Haydara is a member of the Baha’i faith, who has been in prison since December 2013. The court in Houthi-controlled Sanaʽa, Yemen’s capital, rejected his appeal and approved the sentence that was handed down in January 2018. The Yemeni officials did not allow bin …

Iran Human Rights (IHR) – Death-row prisoner Majid Esmaeilzadeh was hanged Saturday morning April 18, at the central prison of Ardabil, North-Western Iran. Some sources say he was under 18 at the time of the offence.  According to IHR sources, Majid Esmaeilzadeh was hanged at the central prison of Ardabil city, Iran. Sources say he was arrested and sentenced to …

Iran Human Rights (IHR) – Death-row prisoner Hossein Taheri was hanged in Khalkhal city, Ardabil province, on April 16. According to IHR sources, Hossein Taheri (37) was hanged at the central prison of Khalkhal city. He was sentenced to death for murder around five years ago.  Executions in Iran have continued to be carried out even after the coronavirus (COVID-19) …

Iran-HRM – Human rights sources have identified more prisoners killed by security forces in Ahvaz prison riots over fears of contracting the coronavirus. The state security forces responded to the coronavirus-related rioting late March by firing live ammunition and tear gas. According to prisoners’ relatives, dozens of prisoners were suffocated with teargas, burned to death during a prison riot over conditions, amid …

CHRI – UN human rights experts* today called on Iran to expand its temporary release of thousands of detainees to include prisoners of conscience and dual and foreign nationals still being held despite serious risk of COVID-19 infection. The country has been hit hard by COVID-19, with Health Ministry officials reporting one person dies every 10 minutes from the virus. …

Radiofarda – The Free Trade Union of Workers in Iran has reported that a member of its board of directors, Ms. Nahid Khodajo, was summoned to Tehran’s Evin Prison, to serve her sentence amid the coronavirus crisis. Deploring the decision, the April 16 statement says the Evin Court of Appeals has given Ms. Khodajoo five days to surrender herself to …

Radiofarda – Referring to concerns over the novel coronavirus outbreak in the Islamic Republic prisons, a lawyer defending political prisoners says fear is dominating Qarchak detention center and calls for urgent action. Qarchak Prison, located in a remote desert, 39 kilometers (about 24 miles) east of Tehran, is known as the most dangerous and worst prison in Iran for its …

HRW – Syria’s health care system has been decimated by war, as have Yemen’s and Libya’s. The Middle East has large populations of refugees and migrants at risk during the pandemic. Then there are the poor who, if they can’t work because of a lockdown, won’t have food to eat. Acting Middle East and North Africa (MENA) director Eric Goldstein …

CHRI – Detained teenage Instagram celebrity Fatemeh Khishvand is currently on a ventilator at Sina Hospital in Tehran after contracting COVID-19 in state custody, while the judge who holds the power to free her is unreachable, according to her lawyer. Judge Mohammad Moghiseh, Who Could Authorize Her Release, Has Been Unreachable “We find it unacceptable that this young woman has …

Iran Human Rights (IHR) –  The 12th annual report on the death penalty by Iran Human Rights (IHR) and ECPM (Together Against the Death Penalty) provides an assessment and analysis of the death penalty trends in 2019 in the Islamic Republic of Iran. It sets out the number of executions in 2019, the trend compared to previous years, the legislative …