Human rights

HRANA – Bushehr Appellate Court upheld sentences of seven Baha’i citizens. On May 5, 2019, they were sentenced to 21 years imprisonment, compiled, by the Bushehr Revolutionary Court. Mino Riazati, Asadollah Jaberi, Ehteram Sheykhi, Emad Jaberi, Farideh Jaberi, Farokhlegha Faramarzi, and Pooneh Nasheri were each sentenced to three years imprisonment. They were arrested on February 13, 2018 by the security forces. Their houses …

VOA – Machine gun fire answers rock-throwing protesters. Motorcycle-riding Revolutionary Guard volunteers chase after demonstrators. Plainclothes security forces grab, beat and drag a man off the street to an uncertain fate. As Iran restores the internet after a weeklong government-imposed shutdown, new videos purport to show the demonstrations over gasoline prices rising and the security-force crackdown that followed.The videos offer …

gatestoneinstitute.org – This internet blackout, according to Iran Human Rights director Amiry-Moghaddam, “might indicate the Iranian authorities’ plans to use even more violence against the protesters.” On November 22, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced on Twitter: “The U.S. is sanctioning the Minister of Information and Communications Technology, Mohammad Jahromi, for helping shut down the Iranian internet. We will …

Iran-HRM – Latest reports from Iran indicate the death toll from Iran protests has reached to 300. With almost a full internet blackout, the number of reports coming from Iran are limited but a violent government crackdown and civilian deaths are clear in scattered videos and reports. The Iranian authorities have announced only a few deaths. Reports indicate many families are still desperately …

VOA – Days of widespread anti-government protests and violence in Iran have renewed debate over the status of minorities in the country, with some experts warning that Iranian authorities are blaming minority groups for the unrest in a bid to justify further clamping down on them. The nationwide protests in Iran erupted late last week because of frustration over an …

Radiofarda – Following Hillary Clinton’s tweet on Friday in support of protesters in Iran, four democratic presidential candidates also sent messages via Twitter, demanding an end to violence and urging the government to listen to its own people. First, was Kamala Harris who said, “Instead of killing its citizens, violating rights…the Iranian government should listen to its people and implement reforms”. Harris …

Al-Arabia – Iranian troops and members of the Revolutionary Guards helped police quell violent unrest in Kermanshah province this week, Iranian officials said on Saturday, accusing “US agents” of being among the protesters.Rights group Amnesty International said at least 30 people were killed in the western province, making it the worst hit by days of protests over gasoline prices rises …

RFL/RE – Germany’s most senior human rights official has expressed “shock” at the recent sentencing in Iran of six members of a local wildlife conservation group to lengthy prison terms on charges of espionage. Baerbel Kofler, a lawmaker and the German federal government’s commissioner for human rights policy and humanitarian aid, also called for the activists’ immediate release. “I am …

VOA – Iran has extended a major shutdown of internet access into a seventh day to suppress domestic opposition to the government, prompting the United States to sanction the Iranian official overseeing the outage. NetBlocks.org✔@netblocks The #Iran internet shutdown is now in its 144th hour, keeping friends and family out of touch and limiting the basic rights of IraniansSubscribe to …

HRW – An Iranian revolutionary court has sentenced at least six environmental experts detained since January 2018 after an unfair trial where the defendants apparently could not see the full dossier of evidence against them, Human Rights Watch said today. The court informed the detainees on November 20, 2019 that they had been convicted of “collaborating with the enemy state of the …