Human rights

Iran Human Rights (IHR) – Three prisoners were executed for murder charges at Iranian western city of Ilam’s Central Prison yesterday. According to Rokna, on the morning of Thursday, April 18, three prisoners were executed at Ilam prison. All were sentenced to death for murder charges. More details have not been revealed by Iranian authorities or media so far. According to …

Iran Human Rights (IHR) – A prisoner was hanged for murder charges at Zanjan prison last Tuesday. According to IHR sources, Hedayat Mehrabi, 37, was hanged for murder charges on the morning of April 19. A well-informed source told IHR, “Hedayat was arrested around five years ago in the city of Kermanshah for murder a person. He was sentenced to …

CHRI – Some Iranian officials have responded to Instagram’s decision to remove accounts it has associated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) by pushing for a nationwide ban on the popular social media app. Many Iranians have responded by calling not only for Instagram to remain unblocked but also for the government to rescind bans on other widely used …

CHRI – Twelve of the 20 environmental conservationists arrested in Iran’s Kurdistan Province in January and February 2019 remain in detention centers run by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the Ministry of Intelligence in the city of Sanandaj, the provincial capital, without access to legal counsel. A local conservationist identified the detainees as Farhad Mohammadi, Hadi Kamangar, Issa …

VOA – An Iranian court has held an appeal hearing for a jailed Iranian journalist and rights activist who faces a 12-year prison sentence for her social media criticisms of Iran’s judiciary. A report by Iran’s semi-official ISNA news agency quoted a lawyer for journalist Hengameh Shahidi as saying he and his client appeared in court for the Tuesday hearing. Mostafa Tork …

Amnesty – Iranian authorities must stop harassing, arresting and imprisoning women’s rights defenders peacefully protesting against Iran’s degrading and discriminatory forced veiling laws, and release those detained on this basis immediately and unconditionally, said Amnesty International today. The organization has confirmed that two women’s rights defenders, Yasmin Aryani and Monireh Arabshahi, have been detained in the past week and that …

CHRI – Editor’s Note: On April 17, someone identified by an Iranian state media outlet as an “informed source” denied reports that all charges against Taheri have been dropped, adding that only his furlough (temporary leave from prison) had been extended.  An appeals court in Iran ordered the official release of Shiite mystic Mohammad Ali Taheri from Tehran’s Evin Prison on April 17, 2019, …

BBC – An Iranian who became the first woman from her country to contest an official boxing match says she has cancelled her return home from France after hearing a warrant had been issued for her arrest. Sadaf Khadem beat the French boxer Anne Chauvin in an amateur bout on Saturday. She had planned to fly to Tehran with her …

CHRI – After years of advocacy efforts by defenders of the rights of people with disabilities in Iran, the country’s Parliament has voted to pass an amendment that, if approved by the Guardian Council, would allow blind people to run for Parliament. Mohammad Javad Kolivand, the chairman of the Parliamentary Committee for Councils and Domestic Affairs, announced the news in an interview …

CHRI – Vida Movahedi, the woman whose public display of peaceful protest against Iran’s compulsory hijab law was captured in a viral photo, remains detained in Gharchak Prison for women south of Tehran despite being eligible for release.    On April 14, 2019, her attorney, Payam Derafshan, told the state-owned Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) that Branch 1091 of the Guidance Court …