Shabtabnews In this dark night, I have lost my way – Arise from a corner, oh you the star of guidance.

Iranwire – Belgium’s invitation to Alireza Zakani, Tehran’s mayor and the former chief of the paramilitary Student Basij Organization, to attend a mayors’ conference in June triggered a political controversy in Belgium that led to the resignation of the Brussels’ state secretary for urbanism and to calls for the Belgian foreign minister to step down for issuing a visa to …

Iranwire – Majid Khademi, a 32-year-old activist from Behbahan in Khuzestan Province, was sentenced to 10 years and three months in prison after entering a plea of no contest. The Mahshahr Revolutionary Court handed down the sentence on charges of “propaganda against the system,” “membership in hostile groups,” “disturbance of public order,” “damage to public property,” “acting against national security” …

Iranwire – Faezeh Hashemi, a political activist currently imprisoned in Tehran’s Evin prison, has urged reformists in Iran and all those “dedicated to preserving the system” not to participate in elections.  When “authoritarians justify their existence and function by changing, distorting and interpreting words, they render laws and institutions ineffective and they reinforce lies; dictatorships are dressed in the glorious …

VOA – Iran’s foreign ministry lambasted France on Monday for hosting a meeting of an exiled Iranian opposition group that Tehran considers a “terrorist” organization. On Saturday, the Albania-based People’s Mujahedin of Iran, or Mujahedeen-e-Khalq (MEK), held a meeting outside Paris as thousands of the group’s supporters held a rally in the center of the French capital. Former U.S. Vice …

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO) – State media have reported the execution of three unnamed men for rape charges in Bandarabbas Central Prison. According to the Judiciary’s Mizan news agency, three men were executed in Bandarabbas Central Prison on 4 July. Quoting Mojtaba Ghahremani, the Hormozgan Chief Justice, the report states that the three unnamed men were sentenced to death for …