Iranwire – Another Swedish citizen has been newly arrested in Iran in the latest sign the Iranian regime may be trying to use hostage diplomacy to pervert the course of justice in the Hamid Nouri trial. The Swedish Foreign Ministry confirmed on Friday that an as-yet unnamed Swedish man in his 30s had been detained the previous week. The man was …
Read More »Social and Political
HRW Urges Iran to Release Teachers Arrested in Crackdown
VOA – Iran has arrested almost 40 teachers nationwide leading up to and since May 1 protests, Human Watch Rights has said, calling for their release. Quoting the reformist Emtedad news website, the watchdog said that as of May 1 Iranian authorities had arrested 38 teachers. At least 17 of them are still detained, including Mohammad Habibi, the Iranian Teachers Trade Association’s …
Read More »Human Rights Defender in Dire Condition
HRW – Imprisoned human rights defender Behnam Mousivand has been hospitalized at Taleghani hospital in Tehran since April 29, the Human Rights Activists News Agency (Hrana) reported. According to Hrana, Mousivand was on a hunger strike from April 19 to May 5 to protest his detention conditions. On the day Mousivand began his hunger strike, Rajai Shahr prison officials reportedly beat …
Read More »Sinjar becomes latest flashpoint for Iran-Turkey tensions in Iraq
Al-monitor – Clashes between Iraqi security forces and a Yazidi militia known as the Shingal Resistance Units (YBS) may represent one of several new fronts in escalating tensions between Iran and Turkey in Iraq. Turkey expands anti-PKK operations in Iraq and Syria Turkey has intensified air, drone and artillery attacks against Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) targets beyond the remote, northern …
Read More »No Place For Converts: Iran’s Persecuted Christians Struggle To Keep The Faith
RFL/RE – Ali Shahvari grew up in a traditional and religious Muslim family in Iran. He was devoted to his country to the extent that he twice volunteered to fight on the front lines in the devastating Iran-Iraq War. But after one of his brothers was killed and another wounded in the 1980-88 conflict, he turned to drugs. Two decades …
Read More »US State Department Sizes Up Assad Family’s Known Wealth
Iranwire – At the end of April the US State Department published a report by Congress that revealed the net worth, as American officials understand it, of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and eight of his family members. The report estimated the Assad family net worth to be US$1 to 2 billion. The report remains incomplete because the State Department believes Al-Assad and …
Read More »Dust Storms and Drought in Iran’s Khuzestan Made Worse by Decades of Populist Planning
Iranwire – Schools, universities, government offices and banks have closed their doors in the southwestern province of Khuzestan due to intense pollution and the air being thick with dust. According to observers, the level of particle pollution in the cities of Ahvaz and Shush currently has recently stood at 25 times the safe level. At the same time, a Ministry …
Read More »Activist on Hunger Strike at Death’s Door, Friends in Iran Warn
Iranwie – Behnam Mousivand, a jailed Iranian human rights advocate who went on hunger strike two weeks ago, has now been sent to hospital in a dire physical condition, fellow activists report. Atena Daemi, a children’s rights campaigner and recently-released prisoner of conscience, has been to hospital to visit Mousivand. She tweeted that he was running a fever, unable to speak and …
Read More »Iranian decision to execute Swedish dual national sparks backlash
Al-Monitor – Iranians took to social media to draw the world’s attention to the Islamic Republic’s plans to send a Swedish-Iranian national to the gallows for espionage. The reactions followed a report by the official ISNA news agency indicating that Iran would implement the death penalty for Ahmad-Reza Djalali by May 21. A disaster medicine scientist, Djalali was arrested in Iran in 2016 while on a …
Read More »Information Blackout on Fatal Alcohol Poisoning Spate in Port City
Iranwire – No further official information has been published in days on an apparent mass alcohol poisoning in the port city of Bandar Abbas, Hormozgan province, amid unofficial reports that the number of cases and deaths continues to climb. On Monday news that eight people in Bandar Abbas had died after drinking tainted homemade alcohol made international headlines. Another 51 were …
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