Social and Political

RFL/RE -A member of the Iranian parliament says that about 80 percent of Iranians use tools on their mobile phones to bypass Internet filtering and censorship. In an interview with ILNA news agency on July 6, Gholamreza Nouri Qazaljeh said that many popular websites in Iran are filtered to the extent that even children and teenagers “have to have tools …

RFL/RE – A court in Turkey has handed a life sentence to a man accused in the killing of a former Iranian intelligence operative who exposed alleged corruption in Iran’s judiciary and security forces. Turkish media reported on July 7 that Abdul Wahab Kocak was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of Masoud Molavi Vardanjani, who was shot dead in …

Iranwire – Over the last fortnight Iran’s infamous morality patrols have stepped up their presence, and their harassment of women, in several major cities. Social media users report that they are in new cars and deploying more violence than usual. It coincides with renewed tirades from officials of all strips across Iran about “Islamic hijab”, “chastity” and the need to …

Iranwire – A spokesperson for Poland’s Nicolaus Copernicus University has confirmed in an interview with Radio Farda that one of the university’s professors, Matsey Walczak, has been imprisoned in Iran for almost a year. “Unfortunately, I can confirm this information,” said the spokesperson, Martin Czyzniewski. “But this information is not new. Three professors of our university were arrested in September …

Al-Monitor – Top Iranian nuclear negotiator Ali Bagheri Kani was in Oman, one of the very few allies of the Islamic Republic in the Arab world and which has a history of pushing for rapprochement between Tehran and Washington.   Bagheri Kani sat down in Muscat with Omani Foreign Minister Sayyid Badr bin Hammad bin Hamoud al-Busaidi. Noting “historical mutual trust” between their …

Al-Arabia – Poland confirmed on Thursday that a Polish scientist had been arrested in Iran and said it was working to secure his return home, after Tehran announced the arrest of several foreigners that it accused of spying. Iranian state television reported on Wednesday that its Revolutionary Guards had arrested the foreigners for acts that included taking soil samples in restricted areas. …

RFL/RE – Britain’s ambassador to Iran said a diplomat whom Tehran claimed it had detained on spying charges had in fact left the country late last year. Simon Shercliff’s remarks, in a post to Twitter on July 7, followed contradictory reports about the status and whereabouts of Giles Whitaker, Britain’s deputy chief of mission in Tehran, and several other foreigners. …

RFL/RE – Ukraine International Airlines (UIA) has filed a lawsuit against the Islamic republic over the 2020 shooting down of a Ukrainian passenger jet by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). The lawsuit, seen by Radio Farda, filed in a court in Ontario, is dated January 2022. It lists the Islamic Republic of Iran and the IRGC as the two defendants …

Al-Monitor – The Biden administration on Wednesday issued a new round of sanctions targeting an international network it says facilitated the sale of hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of Iranian oil and petrochemical products to East Asia.  Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement that the State and Treasury departments designated 15 individuals and entities located in …

RFL/RE – Belgian lawmakers have given initial clearance to a prisoner-exchange treaty with Iran that could pave the way for the release of an Iranian diplomat convicted of planning to bomb the rally of an exiled opposition group outside Paris. The Foreign Relations Committee of Belgium’s lower house of parliament debated the treaty over two days before finally approving it …