samedi 14 septembre 2013

Violation of Human Rights in Iran during a Week 04 August 2013

At a Glance



International Condemnation of Violation of Human Rights in Iran

 

Press releases

Iran: New President must deliver on human rights campaign promises

AI Index: PRE01/389/2013                                                             2 August 2013
The Iranian authorities must seize the opportunity presented by a change of leadership to fulfil the aspirations of many Iranians and undertake a complete overhaul of human rights in the country, said Amnesty International ahead of the inauguration of the new President this weekend.  
Hassan Rouhani, the 64-year old cleric who has been described as a moderate, will be sworn in as President on Sunday 4 August 2013. Amnesty International has published a set of recommendations to the Iranian authorities, setting out a road map to address the abysmal human rights situation in the country. 
"For too long Iran has failed to live up to its human rights obligations under domestic and international law. After years of repression and international isolation, the Iranian authorities must stop posturing and acknowledge the severity of human rights violations in the country,” said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa
"Hassan Rouhani and the Iranian authorities can no longer ignore people’s demands for their rights to be respected. The hopes of Iranians must not be crushed yet again. The inauguration must be used as an opportunity to desist from hateful practices such as discrimination, torture, arbitrary detention and unfair trials which can lead to death sentences”.  
Amnesty International is calling on the Iranian authorities to uphold the rights to freedom of expression, association, and assembly for everyone.  The organization is also calling for provisions of Iran's Penal Code that infringe on such freedoms to be repealed or amended. 
“Iranians chanted the names of opposition leaders under house arrest upon the announcement of the election results. As a first step, all prisoners of conscience, jailed solely for peacefully exercising their rights, must be immediately and unconditionally released,” said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui. 
Opposition leaders, Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, along with Mousavi’s wife, Zahra Rahnavard, herself a political activist, have been held under unofficial house arrest since February 2011 and must also be released. 
Undue restrictions on the media, telecommunications services, as well as on the activities of NGOs and trade unions must also be revoked. 
During his electoral campaign, Hassan Rouhani made a number of pledges that could improve Iran's dire human rights records.  Among these was a plan to issue a "civil rights charter" calling for the equality of all citizens. 
Amnesty International is urging the Iranian authorities to amend or abolish all laws and practices that discriminate on the basis of race, colour, religion, ethnicity, gender or other status.
The incoming President has also made several promises to improve women's rights. Amnesty International is calling for the authorities to repeal or amend all laws that discriminate against women, including any laws that place restrictions on women’s access to work or education. A comprehensive law that protects women against all forms of violence must also be introduced. 
For many years students have been repressed, imprisoned and denied their right to education. The right to higher education must be based on merit alone without discrimination on grounds of sex, ethnicity, nationality, religious beliefs or any other status. The new administration must take steps to guarantee that all students and lecturers who have been arbitrarily banned from studying or teaching are allowed to resume their previous roles.
Over the past decades, the routine use of torture and other ill-treatment by security forces has been a hallmark of the way the Iranian authorities operate. A clear stance that such abuses will no longer be tolerated is needed.  The definition of torture as a criminal offence must be clarified under Iranian law. Iran’s revised Islamic Penal Code, which still allows for the application of corporal punishment, including flogging and amputation, as well as stoning for adultery must also be amended. 
Iran remains one of the most prolific executioners in the world. The authorities must take concrete steps to abolish the death penalty, in particular, for juvenile offenders
Urgent reforms to the criminal justice system, guaranteeing the independence of the judiciary and ensuring fair trials for all Iranians, must also be prioritised.   The use of televised forced “confessions” must end. 
All human rights violations must be independently investigated and those responsible held accountable for their actions. As an immediate step to signal a change in policies, Iranian authorities must allow UN human rights experts and NGOs including Amnesty International to visit Iran
The international community must also assess the human rights impact of sanctions and ensure they are not contributing to violations of the economic and social rights of people in Iran.
“Unless concrete changes are made immediately, the change of leadership will simply be a squandered opportunity,” said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui. 
 
Iran: A Human Rights Agenda for New President
Urgent need for Reform as Rouhani Takes Office
August 2, 2013

During his presidential campaign, Rouhani appealed to the Iranian voters’ desire for change by promising to expand personal freedoms and respect human rights. Now that he has a mandate from the people to push through necessary reforms, he needs to prove that his presidency is more than just campaign promises.
Tamara Alrifai, Middle East advocacy director
(Beirut)– Iran’s incoming government should take concrete steps to improve the country’s dreadful human rights record, Human Rights Watch said in a letter to President-elect Hassan Rouhani. The letter identified key reform areas, ranging from freeing political prisoners to cooperating with UN rights bodies, that Rouhani and his new administration should take on during their next four years in office.

Rouhani will be sworn in as the seventh president of the Islamic Republic of Iran during an inauguration ceremony on August 4, 2013. Rouhani, who ran on a campaign of “hope” and “moderation” in the June 14 elections and received 50.7 percent of the votes, made numerous promises to the Iranian people regarding respect for individual rights. After officials announced the election results, many people came into the streets to celebrate, some calling for the release of political prisoners and chanting slogans in memory of those who died during the government’s crackdown following the disputed 2009 presidential election.

“During his presidential campaign, Rouhani appealed to the Iranian voters’ desire for change by promising to expand personal freedoms and respect human rights,” said Tamara Alrifai, Middle East advocacy director. “Now that he has a mandate from the people to push through necessary reforms, he needs to prove that his presidency is more than just campaign promises.”

In its letter, Human Rights Watch urged Rouhani and his administration to take the following steps:

  • Free political prisoners:Push for the immediate and unconditional release of all political prisoners, including hundreds of political and civic activists, journalists, lawyers, and rights defenders, and allow them to continue their peaceful activities upon release. Rouhani should also work towards ending the house arrest of leading opposition figures.
  • Support a moratorium on executions: Push for a moratorium on executions, followed by a review of the death penalty with a view to abolishing it. The vast majority of executions in Iran are for crimes such as drug trafficking, which international law does not consider serious enough to warrant the death penalty, and in other cases, numerous due process violations taint the verdicts. Since Rouhani’s election, sources have reported several dozen executions. During the past few years, Iran has had the second largest number of executions in the world, behind only China.
  • Remove media restrictions:Carry out policies that encourage, not prohibit, freedom of the press and the Internet. The administration’s priority should be to remove the dizzying array of censorship regulations and “red lines” that Iranians must navigate to avoid risking arrest, detention, and conviction. As of June 2013, there were more than 50 journalists and bloggers behind bars in Iran.
  • Expand academic freedom: Eliminate barriers to academic freedom imposed during the last eight years, including reinstating dozens of professors forced out because of their views, restricting the influence of security forces on campuses, removing disciplinary boards that unlawfully monitor students’ activities, rolling back regressive gender-based policies that limit access by women and men to certain areas of study, and allowing student organizations to resume operating.
  • Unshackle civil society: Remove unnecessary burdens on nongovernmental groups, and allow groups such as independent trade and labor unions, the Iranian Bar Association, Shirin Ebadi’s Center for Human Rights Defenders, and the House of Cinema, to operate without interference.
  • Respect women’s rights: Appoint officials in ministries or positions of power, including women, who favor policies intended to improve women’s rights; initiate a national dialogue aimed at reforming discriminatory legislation such as personal status laws; and support women’s groups in their efforts to change these laws. Rouhani’s administrations should also reverse restrictions on population control programs, oppose regressive gender-based policies in universities and public spaces, and end security crackdowns on women who are deemed not to abide by the strict dress code.
  • Guarantee minority rights: Implement policies that ensure equal protection of the law for all Iranians, irrespective of ethnicity and faith. Ethnic and religious minorities are regularly subjected to legal and effective discrimination in their political participation, employment, and the exercise of their religious, social, and cultural rights. 
  • Push for the eradication of inhumane practices: Revive the national debate on banning inhumane practices and punishments such as stoning and executions of child offenders.
  • Cooperate with UN rights bodies: Reverse the government’s failure to cooperate with international institutions, particularly United Nations human rights mechanisms, by allowing access to the UN special rapporteur on Iran, Dr. Ahmed Shaheed, and other thematic special procedures of the Human Rights Council. Carry out recommendations by the General Assembly, UN expert bodies, and member states during the 2009 Universal Periodic Review debate, many of which call for accountability for torture and killings by Iranian officials during the crackdown following the 2009 presidential election.
Rouhani and his government should also allow staff of Human Rights Watch to visit Iran to discuss these issues with the new administration. “We sincerely hope that your inauguration signals a new willingness on the part of the Iranian government to engage with international human rights organizations,” the Human Rights Watch letter said.

Rouhani was elected president despite serious restrictions and rights abuses that prevented free and fair elections. There were no serious reports of voter irregularities at the pollsor incidents following this year’s election.

“Safeguarding the rights of all Iranians is absolutely essential to effective and responsible leadership,” Alrifai said.“If Rouhani wants to steer the country out of the morass of the last eight years, he’s going to have to address past and ongoing human rights abuses by the government.”


Resolution on the serious and systematic human rights violations in Iran

Presented by the “League for the Defence of Human Rights in Iran (LDDHI)”

Last Update 2 August 2013

Considering that the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran has been drastically deteriorating in the past three years:
  • The UN Secretary General and the Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Iran have issued annual reports depicting the worsening conditions of human rights in Iran;
  • The UN General Assembly’s annual resolutions on Iran have denounced the violations of human rights with ever-growing majority;
  • The government has totally ignored the recommendations made during the 2010 UPR and utterly failed to fulfil even the recommendations it agreed to.
Considering that the death penalty is frequently and extensively used:
  • Islamic Republic of Iran ranks first per capita execution worldwide and second to China in regard to absolute number of executions. In the past three years, at least 553 (2010), 634 (2011) and more than 544 (2012) executions have been recorded. Minors are executed for crimes allegedly committed when they were below 18 years of age. Executions in public and secret executions are common;
  • Death sentence is imposed for more than 20 categories of offences, including for non-serious offences, such as drugs-related and economic offences; as well as ambiguously worded offences such as moharebeh (waging war on God) and corruption on earth, mostly for political prisoners;
  • Strangulation is the most frequently used inhuman method of execution; stoning is another cruel method stipulated in law and practised; several persons are facing the sentence of death by stoning;
  • Thousands of prisoners are on death row.
Considering that due process is systematically disregarded and denied:
  • Defendants, notably in political cases, are arrested without arrest warrant, are held for long periods in solitary confinement and denied access to family and lawyer and to fair trial;
  • Death-row drugs-related offenders do not have the right of appeal.
Considering that freedoms of conscience and conviction, expression, assembly, and association are practically nonexistent:
  • Hundreds of journalists have been forced to flee the country and around 52 journalists, writers and bloggers are in prison at present; Newspapers are frequently closed;
  • Peaceful assemblies have been attacked and their participants have been detained; literary gatherings have been banned;
  • Various organisations, including the Journalists Association, Writers Association as well as dissenting peaceful political parties have been banned and their activists are serving long-term prison terms;
  • Independent unions of workers and teachers have been attacked and their activists are in prison serving long-term sentences;
  • Film makers have been sentenced to imprisonment for their work;
  • And the book publishing industry is under very strict and harsh control and subjected to heavy censorship that is driving many publishers into bankruptcy.
Considering that human rights defenders, including human rights lawyers, women’s rights activists, unionists attempting to organise independent labour unions, student activists, journalists and writers, minority rights defenders have faced severe persecution, been victims of harsh repression and sentenced to long term imprisonment sentences. Among them:
  • Four members of the FIDH league member, Defenders of Human Rights Centre, Messrs Mohammad Seifzadeh, Abdolfattah Soltani, Mohammad Ali Dadkhah, and Ms. Nasrin Sotoudeh (co-recipient of European Parliament’s Sakharov prize for freedom of thought in 2012) are currently serving imprisonment sentences of 8, 13, 9 and 6 years, respectively, while the last three have been banned from practising law for 10 years; Mr. Mohammad Sadiq Kaboudvand, president of Kurdistan Human Rights Organisation, has been serving an 11-year prison sentence since 2007.
Considering that women’s rights are regularly violated:
  • Women are regarded half the men before the law in numerous instances; age of criminal responsibility for women is 9 lunar years; the draft Family Protection Law will further ease polygamy and reduce the already very limited rights of women;
  • The police and other security forces frequently use force and violence as well as statutory measures and fines to force a strict dress code on women;
  • Extensive measures have been taken to segregate women from men in universities and government departments and ban women from a large number of university courses;
Considering that ethnic communities have been consistently repressed:
  • They have been deprived of the right to learn, to teach and publish books and newspapers in their own languages;
  • They have faced extensive political and economic discrimination;
  • Their political and cultural activists have faced stronger repression and, in particular the Arabs, Kurds and Baloch communities, have been victims of proportionately higher number of executions.
Considering that religious minorities have suffered from severe persecution:
  • The constitutionally recognised religious minorities, in particular Sunni Muslims, dissenting Shiites including Sufi dervishes, Christians, and other minorities have suffered from severe repression and scores of their followers have been detained and sentenced to harsh prison sentences;
  • Prayer centres of dervishes have been attacked and demolished; several dervishes, including four lawyers, have been in pre-trial detention since September 2011;
  • Churches of Christians have been closed; several Christians including some pastors are serving prison sentences;
  • Followers of the non-recognised Baha’i faith have been deprived of their social rights; more than 100 of the followers are in prison and many of them are serving long-term prison sentences.
Considering that free elections are consistently prevented:
  • Elections are open only to hand-picked candidates under highly discriminatory legislation; hundreds of candidates have been barred from standing in elections;
  • Women have not been permitted to stand in presidential elections;
  • In the wake of the millions-strong demonstrations in 2009, thousands of people who protested vote-riggings were arrested, tortured, and imprisoned; several lost their lives in detention centres and the perpetrators enjoy impunity;
  • Two 2009 presidential candidates, former Prime Minister Mir Hossein Mousavi and former parliament speaker Mehdi Karroubi, as well as Mr. Mousavi’s wife Ms. Zahra Rahnavard, have been under house arrest since February 2011.

The 38th FIDH Congress
Expresses its strong support for all Iranian human rights defenders;
Urges the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran to:

  • Respect all its obligations under the international human rights law, and in particular:
  • Stop immediately the execution of juveniles and public executions;
  • Stop immediately imposing the death penalty for political charges;
  • Establish a moratorium on the death penalty, with a view to abolish it completely;
  • Respect and guarantee equality for women before the law and in practice;
  • Respect and guarantee freedom of expression, thought, conscience and conviction, assembly and association, as well as minority rights;
  • Guarantee fair and free elections;
  • Guarantee for all prisoners, the application of due process, access to proper medical care, their families and lawyers and their right to fair trial in conformity with international standards;
  • Release all prisoners of conscience;

Urges the United Nations, the European Union and the national governments to: 

  • Call on the Iranian government to release all prisoners of conscience, including human rights defenders;
  • Call on the Iranian government to cooperate with and ensure prompt access by UN special procedures;
  • Take effective steps to remedy and prevent corporate behaviour that may constitute complicity for human rights violations perpetrated in the Islamic Republic of Iran and, in particular, ban the export of all items used for repression of protesters, eavesdropping and other equipment used to control the population’s access to internet and other media.

 

Inhuman treatment of journalists, more efforts to cover up Beheshti case

Published on Friday 2 August 2013
Reporters Without Borders reiterates its deep concern about the conditions in which many Iranian journalists are being held.
Mehdi Karoubi, 76, a dissident theologian, former parliamentary speaker and owner of the closed newspaper Etemad Melli, was transferred to an unknown destination on 31 July after an angioplasty operation in a Tehran hospital. It was the third time he had been hospitalized in a week with various ailments including a heart condition.
Like Mir Hossein Mousavi, the owner of the closed newspaper Kalameh Sabaz, and Mousavi’s wife, the writer Zahra Rahnavard, Karoubi has been under house arrest since February 2011. But Mousavi and Rahnavard have been held at their home, on the intelligence ministry’s orders, whereas Karoubi has been held at an unknown location.
“It is worse than a prison,” one of Karoubi’s relatives told Reporters Without Borders. “Prisoners, even those in solitary confinement, are allowed into the courtyard once a day, but he is only allowed to walk in the building’s car park.”
“Neither national law nor international standards offer any legal basis for the arbitrary detention of Karoubi, Mousavi and Rahnavard,” Reporters Without Borders said. “Their detention is a gross violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as they are being denied the right to a fair trial. We are also worried about their health. The Islamic Republic must end this situation.”
Reporters Without Borders also condemns the Islamic Republic’s violation of the rights of prisoners of opinion, including imprisoned journalists who could shed light on the bloggerSattar Beheshti’s death in detention in November 2012.
Ali Nazeri’s transfer on 18 July from Tehran’s Evin prison to a prison in the northeastern city of Zabol has been the subject of protests in Evin prison’s Section 350 ever since. Friction between Evin’s guards and political prisoners, especially the journalists and netizens held in this section, has been growing steadily. Riot police have even been used to stifle protests.
Abolfazl Abedini Nasr, a journalist held since March 2010 who was sentenced to 11 years in prison in April 2011 for journalistic activities, has also been the subject of a transfer. Without any explanation or legal grounds being given, he was transferred to Karon prison in the southern city of Ahvaz, one of the worst prisons in the country, on 27 July.
Nasr was one of the prisoners who saw Beheshti during the 12 hours he spent in Evin prison’s Section 350 on 31 October 2012, four days before his death in police custody.
Nasr was previously transferred to Karon prison on 15 November 2012 but was sent back to Evin on the Tehran prosecutor-general’s orders the next day and was placed in an isolation cell. He went on a hunger strike at the time against these punitive measures.
The authorities are continuing to persecute Hossein Ronaghi Malki, a netizen and human rights activist who was arrested in December 2010 and who is serving a 17-year jail sentence despite having undergone several kidney operations and being in very poor health.
Malki was let out of Evin prison to receive medical treatment but was ordered to return on 22 May 2013. His father wrote an open letter to the judicial authorities at the time, accusing them of negligence towards his son. “He is ill and must receive appropriate treatment,” he wrote.
One of the reasons for the unrelenting treatment received by Malki could be linked to recent statements by Beheshti’s mother. She said that Malki, who was one of the prisoners who saw Beheshti in Section 350, could testify in court and could confirm that Beheshti was mistreated and tortured during interrogation by the police.
She also said that her family’s lawyer, Ghiti Pourfazel, had been subjected to questioning by intelligence ministry officials in an attempt to silence her (Pourfazel). Since then, Pourfazel has been unable to give any interviews to the media.
Execution

 

Iran: Prisoner hanged in Miandoab

Published on Monday, 29 July 2013 12:00
NCRI - The Iranian regime's henchmen has hanged on a prisoner on Saturday in southern city of Miandoab.
The Iranian regime's judiciary chief in the city told the state-run network that the man was hanged in the city's prison. 
He had been arrested four years ago on drug related charges, he said.
Since the Iranian regime's sham presidential election some 100 prisoners have been executed in Iran.
A number of execution have been carried in public.

Among those executed are six women and a prisoner who was 15-years-old when arrested. A high number of prisoners were executed collectively in groups of 21, 11 and 6 persons.
This is while thousands of prisoners in various prisons in the country are on death row.
Persian Source: http://khabarfarsi.com/n/6037548


Torture - Hand Amputation

 

Iran: Three prisoners sentenced to hand amputation or lashes

Published on Thursday, 01 August 2013 13:30
File Photo
NCRI - The head of the Iranian regime's judiciary in southern city of Abadan has sentenced a man to hand amputation. He has also been sentenced to 10 months of imprisonment and 99 lashes for alleged financial crimes.
The state-run Mehr news agency, quoted Nematollah Behroozi on Wednesday (July 31) that also a woman working with him had been sentenced to 74 lashes and two years imprisonment for financial crimes and 99 lashes for alleged adultery.
Another man working with them had been charged with 74 lashes and two years imprisonment, the report said.
Persian Source: http://www.mehrnews.com/detail/News/2107061
Prisoners of Conscience

 

Mashallah Haeri has been exiled to Rajai Shahr prison

Posted on: 29th July, 2013

HRANA News Agency – Mashallah Haeri, the political prisoner of ward 350 of Evin prison, has been exiled to Rajai Shahr prison.
According to a report by Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), Mashallah Haeri, the aged political prisoner of ward 350 of Evin prison, has been summoned to the prison guard office. The authorities told him that he is going to go the prison clinic but they exiled him to Rajai Shahr prison.
He has spent a night in the quarantine of Rajai Shahr prison and was transferred to section 12 of ward 4 afterwards.
Mashallah Haeri is one of the political prisoners of 80th who has been arrested after the presidential elections in 2009 and sentenced to 15 years in prison on charge of supporting MEK. He was in the 6 months medical furlough when the agents arrested his wife and him again and took him back to the prison.
He has had a heart operation and suffers from breathing and heart problems.

29 July 2013
Committee of Human Rights Reporters – Saeed Matinpour, jailed journalist and political activist was granted visitation in prison today, July 29 after spending about 3 years of his sentence behind bars.
According to CHRR, on July 18 Saeed Matinpour and a number of other political prisoners at Evin prison were transferred to solitary confinement after about 150 officers violently raided the men’s public Ward 350 of the prison. This led to 6 prisoners launching a hunger strike in support of Matinpour, demanding that he be released from solitary confinement and returned to the public ward. The six prisoners who went on hunger strike were Saeed Jalalifar (CHRR member), Saeed Haeri (former CHRR member), Reza Shahabi, Soroush Sabet, Fereydoun Seydirad and Vahid Ali Ghalipour.
The hunger-striking prisoners ended their strike after 4 days when their demands were met and Saeed Matinpour was transferred from Ward 240 back to Ward 350 in Evin prison. Today, one week after his return to the public ward, Saeed Matinpour was finally granted visitation with his family.
Saeed Matinpour, a philosophy major at Tehran University is a civil activist involved in Azerbaijan ethnic rights, and journalist who wrote in Zanjan Newspaper. He was arrested on May 25, 2007 and subjected to harsh interrogations while held in solitary confinement for nine months, leading to back and neck problems. He was handed an 8-year prison sentence by Branch 15 of the Revolutionary Court presided by Judge Salavati on the charges of “connection with foreign entities,” and “propaganda against the regime.” Even though Matinpour has spent more than half of his prison term behind bars in Evin prison, he has been barred from his legal right to furlough despite many requests on the part of his family. He is now serving his prison term in Ward 350 of Evin prison.

 

Abolfazl Abedini is exiled to Ahwaz prison / he is on hunger strike

Posted on: 29th July, 2013

HRANA News Agency – Abolfazl Abedini, the journalist and human rights activist has been exiled to Ahwaz prison Saturday afternoon. He has begun hunger strike complaining this sudden transfer.
According to a report by Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), the intelligence agents have transferred Abolfazl Abedini, the political prisoner of ward 350 of Evin prison, to Karoun prison of Ahwaz on Saturday July 27.
He had been also moved from Evin prison to be transferred to Ahwaz prison last year but the agents returned him before arriving to Ahwaz.
Abedini who has been arrested in April 2010 and during the scenario made by the intelligence against the members and supporters of Human Rights Activists News Agency, is prohibited from furlough during his imprisonment.
He has been sentenced to 11 years in prison by the revolutionary court of Ahwaz and 1 year in prison by branch 28 of revolutionary court of Tehran.

 

Prisoners protest transfer of witness in Beheshti case

Wed, 07/31/2013
Forty-four Iranian political prisoners at Evin Prison have issued a statement protesting the transfer of Abolfazl Abedini to Ahwaz Prison in southern Iran, calling for his immediate return.
The Kaleme Website reports that the signatories have denounced the actions against Abedini and described them as a reaction to his efforts to support the investigations into the death of detained blogger Sattar Beheshti last November.
Beheshti died a few days after his arrest by the Cyber Police in Tehran, and Abedini has reportedly offered testimony to support reports that Beheshti was tortured by his interrogators.
Abedini was transferred once last November and was returned shortly afterward to Evin Prison, after his cellmates protested his treatment by the authorities.
The authorities have tried to steer away from controversy in the case of Sattar Beheshti. The coroner’s office confirmed the dead blogger’s body had the marks of beatings but it also announced that the beatings and blows could not have been the cause of death. They have attributed Beheshti’s death to psychological stress.
Abedini is a labour activist who has been serving an 11-year prison term for “propaganda against the regime, an interview with foreign media and links to enemy countries.”

 

Ahmad Daneshpour Moghadam is in critical condition

Posted on: 31st July, 2013

HRANA News Agency – The doctors of ward 350 of Evin prison have warned about the health condition of Ahmad Daneshpour Moghadam who has been arrested in the demonstrations in 2009.
According to a report by Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), a number of the doctors have written a letter to the clinic authorities in Evin prison warning them about the critical health condition of the political prisoner, Mohsen Daneshpour Moghadam, after losing one third of his weight and internal bleeding.
The doctors have written: “Mr. Daneshpour is suffering from bleeding from rectum and the recognition of ulcerative and trying to cure it with pills had no use. This has caused him lose 30 kg of 90 kg weight he had before.”
The letter insists on stress and anxiety as the reason of his diseases. Being 4 years under the death sentence in ward 350 and having his mother and wife under arrest in women ward has put him under a huge stress.
The doctors who have signed this letter are asking for the serious and urgent action of attorney and prison authorities regarding their legal, moral and humanitarian responsibilities.
Ahmad Daneshpour Moghadam, his father Mohsen Daneshpour Moghadam, his mother Motahhare Bahrami and his wife Reyhane Haj Ebrahim Dabbagh have been arrested and transferred to ward 209 of Evin prison on December 27, 2009.
18 days after, Keyhan newspaper wrote that all 4 of those who have been arrested in the demonstrations yesterday will be hanged.
Although 5 months later, the appeal court reduced the verdicts of Motahhare Bahrami to 10 years and Reyhane Haj Ebrahim Dabbagh to 15 years the father and the son are still in the prison without receiving any exact sentence.

 

No information about Maryam Shafi Pour’s condition

Posted on: 31st July, 2013

HRANA News Agency – There is no information about Maryam Shafi Pour’s condition after three days of being under arrest.
According to a report by Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), Maryam Shafi Pour, the former student of Qazvin international university who was arrested on Saturday July 27, has had no telephone contact with her family yet.
She has been arrested after being summoned to branch 2 of Shahid Moghaddas court in Evin and transferred to ward 209 afterwards.
The agents have gone to her father’s home to take some of her properties with themselves which has caused a nervous shock for her mother.
Maryam Shafi Pour had been sentenced to 1 year of suspended prison in 2010 by the revolutionary court of Qazvin.

 

The 5 hunger strikers are in critical condition

Posted on: 31st July, 2013
HRANA News Agency – The 5  Yeni GAMOH members who are on hunger strike in Rajai Shahr prison of Karaj are in critical health condition.
According to a report by Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), Mahmoud Fazli, Ayat Mehr Alibeyglou, Latif Hassani, Behboud Gholizade and Shahram Radmehr who had begun hunger strike on July 13 in Tabriz central prison and were exiled to Evin and then Rajai Shahr prison are in critical health condition.
Shahram Radmehr and Mahmoud Fazli have been transferred to the clinic of the prison two days ago.
One of the prisoners of Rajai Shahr prison told to HRANA: “The head of the prison, Mr. Mardani, have threatened them and wanted them to end their hunger strike. But the 5 political prisoners announced that they will not end the hunger strike unless a fair trial will be held.”
 “There is no place to sleep in ward 12 of Rajai Shahr prison, so they sleep in the corridor.” He said.

1 August 2013
Committee of Human Rights Reporters – Majid Dori jailed Alameh Tabatabai University student barred from continuing his education has been transferred to Karoon prison in Ahvaz.
According to CHRR, student sources said this transfer took place without the knowledge of judicial authorities. When the family of Majid Dori visited the prosecutor’s office to follow-up on the reason for the move from Behbahan prison, after waiting for hours to get a response, they were told that judicial authorities had no knowledge of the transfer. The judicial authorities said that the Ministry of Intelligence did not want Majid Dori to be held in Behbahan prison and the transfer was referred to as a “punishment” for this student that was put in effect on the last year of his incarceration.
In the past days, political prisoner and journalist Abolfazl Abedini was also transferred to Karoon prison in Ahvaz, from Tehran’s Evin prison. Majid Dori’s transfer took place while in the past days, a group of political and civil activists wrote a letter declaring the conditions at Karoon prison to be “wretched and inhumane.”
Majid Dori founded the Right to Education Committee along with several other expelled students who became known as star students – those who were deprived of continuing their education. The student activist and member of the Council to Defend the Right to Education was arrested on July 9, 2009 in Qazvin during the 10th anniversary of the student dormitory attacks. He was originally sentenced to 11 years in prison for his student activism, which was later reduced to 6 years by the appellate court. Per the sentence handed down by Branch 26 of the Revolutionary Court presided by Judge Pir Abassi, Majid Dori was to serve his prison term behind bars in exile in Izeh but since there was no prison facility there, he was instead held in Behbahan prison in Khuzestan province.
Dori’s health has deteriorated in prison as he suffers from severe migraines, and hemophilia, resulting in fainting spells. On Monday July 27th, Dori was without explanation or knowledge of the judicial authorities suddenly transferred to Karoon prison in Ahvaz. Majid Dori has not had any contact with friends or family since this transfer took place.
According to human rights organizations the phones at Karoon prison have been shut off since July 21st – prisoners who were allowed a 3-minute phone call every other day are now deprived of their right to phone calls.

 

Labour activist’s mother files complaint over his death

Fri, 08/02/2013
A commemoration ceremony for Afshin Osanloo, the Iranian labour activist who passed away 40 days ago in Rejaishahr Prison, was held in Beheshte Zahra Cemetery amid heavy security measures.
The mother of the deceased activist, Fatemeh Gulgizi, told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran that she has made a formal complaint against prison authorities for the death of her son.
Authorities attributed Osanloo’s death to “cardiac arrest”, but the family claims he had no history of heart complications.
Gulgizi accuses prison authorities of failing to transfer Osanloo to hospital facilities in time, adding that hospital personnel have informed her that her son was long dead before arriving at their facility.
Afshin Osanloo, 42, and his brother Mansour Osanloo were imprisoned for their involvement in the Sherkat Vahed Bus Drivers Union.
Afshin Osanloo was sentenced to five years in prison in 2009 for assembly and colluding against national security.
Freedom of Expression

 

Iran: 'Citizen reporters' will be treated as spies, official warns

Published on Sunday, 28 July 2013
NCRI- Iranians have been warned that any 'citizen reporters' who send news reports or video footage outside the country will be treated as spies.
The official told the state-affiliated Bashgah Khabarnegarn website on July 26: "This is an easy way for collecting information, a considerable part of which can be used by intelligence service to depict a bleak picture of the country and is used in psychological warfare in the media against the Islamic Republic."
And he warned: "Sending any type of information out of the country for foreigners under any pretext is a crime and those who commit such acts will be dealt with harshly."
The Bashgah Khabarnegarn website said the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) had utilized activists to 'gather information and documentation', and who were arrested and put on trial by the regime's security apparatus.
The Iranian regime had executed PMOI (MEK) supporters for sending a video clip of 2009 anti-regime protests to Persian a language satellite TV channel outside Iran.
During the June election, many activists supporting PMOI (MEK) sent video clips of anti-regime graffiti in cities across Iran, and the displaying of huge banners of Maryam Rajavi, the president-elect of the Iranian Resistance, on a main highway in Tehran.

13 students have been summoned to Shiraz intelligence

Posted on: 29th July, 2013
HRANA News Agency – 13 students of Shiraz medical since university have been summoned to the intelligence.
According to a report by Nedaye Sabze Azadi, these students had been summoned to the building No.100 through telephone calls and were released after some hours of Interrogation.
Most of these students were there members of Rohani’s election campaign. The agents have warned them about further activities.
According to this report the agents have called also the parents of 3 students recommending them to be careful about their children.

31 July 2013
Committee of Human Rights Reporters – Mohammad (Kourosh) Nasiri, Internet activist who was detained for being a member of the Imam Naghi Facebook page, has been handed a 10.6-year prison sentence.
Mohammad Nasiri was detained at his home on May 23, 2012 and transferred to Ward 209 of Evin prison, which is under the jurisdiction of the IRGC Intelligence unit. He spent 30 days in solitary cells in wards 209 and 240 of Evin prison.
According to information provided to CHRR, on May 23, 2012, Ministry of Intelligence officials violently raided the home of Mohammad Nasiri at 3am by breaking down the door. They beat Nasiri and his brother while causing extreme stress to his stunned family, and transferred him to Evin prison.
Branch 26 of the Revolutionary Court presided by Judge Pir Abassi handed Nasiri a 10.6-year prison sentence along with 37 lashes and 350 thousand Tomans in penalties. The charges against him were “insulting the holy”, “gathering with the intent of endangering national security”, “insulting Ayatollah Khomeini”, “insulting the leadership”, “propaganda against the regime”, “insulting the presidency,” and “procession of alcohol.”
Mohammad Nasiri, prisoner of conscience underwent severe psychological duress and physical torture when he was interrogated in solitary confinement. Since then he has spent about a year behind bars in Ward 350 of Evin prison.
Minorities’ Rights
 
Iran: Sufi Activists Convicted in Unfair Trials
Peaceful Activists Facing Years in Prison            
July 25, 2013

The Sufi trials bore all the hallmarks of a classic witch hunt. It seems that authorities targeted these members of one of Iran’s most vulnerable minorities because they tried to give voice to the defense of Sufi rights.
Tamara Alrifai, advocacy director
(Beirut) – Iran’s judiciary should abandon charges and quash the verdicts against 11 members of a Sufi sect convicted in unfair trials and informed of their sentences in July 2013. Those in detention should be freed immediately and unconditionally.

The evidence suggests that all 11 were prosecuted and convicted solely because of their peaceful activities on behalf of the largest Sufi order in Iran or in connection with their contributions to a news website dedicated to uncovering rights abuses against members of the order.

“The Sufi trials bore all the hallmarks of a classic witch hunt,” said Tamara Alrifai, Middle East advocacy director at Human Rights Watch. “It seems that authorities targeted these members of one of Iran’s most vulnerable minorities because they tried to give voice to the defense of Sufi rights.”

On July 18, four of the defendants learned that Branch 2 of the Revolutionary Court in Shiraz had sentenced them to prison terms ranging from one year to three years, followed by periods of internal exile, which bars them from living in their hometowns. The four are out on bail.

On July 10, a revolutionary court in Tehran announced prison sentences against seven Sufis ranging from seven-and-a-half to ten-and-a-half years. They were banned from social, legal, and journalistic activities related to the Sufi order for five years after their release. All are in Tehran’s Evin Prison.

The Majzooban-e Noor website, to which some of the defendants contributed, said the defendants in the Tehran case have refused to file appeals in protest against numerous pre-trial irregularities and ill-treatment in detention by Intelligence Ministry agents. The four defendants in the Shiraz case plan to file appeals.

Branch 2 of Shiraz’s Revolutionary Court convicted the four defendants of membership in an “anti-government” group intent on endangering national security, a reference to the website, and of disseminating “propaganda against the state.” According to the judgment, the court sentenced Saleh Moradi to three years in prison and three years of internal exile in Hormozgan province, Farzaneh Nouri to two years in prison and three years in Khuzestan province, Behzad Nouri to two years in prison and three years in Bushehr province, and Farzad Darvish to a year in prison and three years in Sistan and Baluchistan province.

Branch 15 of Tehran’s Revolutionary Court convicted the seven others of “membership in a sect endangering national security,” “propaganda against the state,” “insulting the Supreme Leader,” “disturbing the public mind,” “establishing and membership in a deviant group,” and “disrupting the public order,” the judgment said. The court sentenced Hamid-Reza Moradi to ten-and-a-half years, Reza Entesari to eight-and-a-half years, and Amir Eslami, Afshin Karampour, Farshid Yadollahi, Omid Behrouzi, and Mostafa Daneshjoo each to seven-and-a-half years.

Eslami, Yadollahi, Daneshjoo, and Behrouzi write for the web site and are lawyers who defended clients affiliated with the Nematollahi Gonabadi Sufi order.

The Nematollahi Gonabadis consider themselves followers of Twelver Shia Islam, the official state religion in Iran. The Iranian government, however, considers them members of a “deviant group,” and has increasingly harassed, arrested, and prosecuted them. At least seven other members of the order are in Evin Prison and Shiraz’s Adel Abad Prison on politically motivated national security charges related to their website activities.

Farhad Nouri, the son of Farzaneh Nouri and an administrator for the website, told Human Rights Watch that of the four defendants sentenced in Shiraz, only Moradi and Behzad Nouri contributed to the site, and the others were apparently targeted because they were affiliated with the Nematollahi Gonabadi order.

Family members of some of the defendants said that the group sentenced in Tehran boycotted the court proceedings and did not attend their trial because the court prevented them from meeting with their lawyers or reviewing the Intelligence Ministry’s case against them both before and during their trial, and intelligence agents physically and psychologically abused them during pretrial detention.

In January, the seven defendants wrote a letter to the chief judge of Branch 15 of the court, Judge Salavati, calling the court illegitimate and submitting numerous reasons why they chose not to appear or defend themselves. The mother of one of the detainees and the wives of two others told Human Rights Watch that the defendants would not appeal the lower court’s decision because they view the entire process as illegitimate.

The wife of one defendant said that her husband and the other defendants also lodged a complaint against the judge for irregularities and abuses they experienced in detention. She said that the judge then ordered prison guards to cut off family visits and transfer the defendants to solitary confinement in the Intelligence Ministry-controlled Ward 209 of Evin Prison for nearly three months, during which they were harassed and beaten. The family members said that the defendants were returned to Ward 350 in mid-April and have since been allowed family visits.

The website said the judge also prevented Daneshjoo and Hamid-Reza Moradi from leaving Evin Prison to receive critical treatments for blocked arteries and asthma that doctors had ordered.

Both Iranian law and international law require prison authorities to provide basic necessities to all prisoners and to treat them with dignity and respect. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), to which Iran is a party, prohibits inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. In 2004, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention criticized Iran’s systematic use of solitary confinement and noted, “[S]uch absolute solitary confinement, when it is of a long duration, can be likened to inhuman treatment within the meaning of the Convention Against Torture.” The UN Basic Principles on the Treatment of Prisoners state that, “Efforts addressed to the abolition of solitary confinement as a punishment, or to the restriction of its use, should be undertaken and encouraged.”

Article 14 of the ICCPR requires Iran to ensure the right to a fair trial of anyone brought before the criminal courts. This includes the right “to have adequate time and facilities for the preparation of his defence and to communicate with counsel of his own choosing” Article 18 of the ICCPR requires Iran to secure the right to freedom of conscience or religion to everyone within its jurisdiction. Article 27 requires Iran to ensure the right of all members of religious minorities to profess and practice their own religion.

“There is plenty of evidence suggesting that the judiciary prosecuted these defendants solely because of their peaceful activities on behalf of their Sufi order,” Alrifai said. “In light of these serious irregularities, there is no justifiable reason to keep these defendants behind bars.”

For background information, please see below.

Background
Farhad Nouri told Human Rights Watch that Intelligence Ministry agents initially arrested his mother, Farzaneh Nouri, in September 2011 to pressure her to reveal her son’s whereabouts. He said his mother spent approximately three weeks in solitary confinement in an Intelligence Ministry detention facility and was eventually released on bail, then charged and prosecuted. Nouri said his mother had absolutely nothing to do with the Majzooban-e Noor website and had been targeted to pressure him to turn himself in. “Her only crime is that she’s my mother,” he said.

Farhad Nouri escaped Iran on September 11, 2011, and is seeking asylum in neighboring Turkey.

Maryam Shirini, Eslami’s wife, said the seven defendants lodged a formal complaint against Judge Salavati for various procedural irregularities and rights violations since their arrest. In the letter, the defendants referred to “being subjected to physical beatings and insults during arrest and interrogation,” preventing the defendants and their lawyers from reviewing the case files, preventing the defendants from meeting with their lawyers, “detention in solitary confinement cells and security wards for nearly four months,” and “use of blindfolds and handcuffs during interrogation,” among other due process violations.

The family members said they believe that their relatives were prosecuted and convicted because they worked for the Majzooban-e Noor website, providing information on rights violations against members of the Nematollahi Gonabadi order. Jamileh Shahbazian, Entesari’s mother, said that her son, a photojournalist, began working for the Majzooban-e Noor site after authorities fired him from several state media jobs because of his affiliation with the order. She said the authorities “want to not only deprive [Sufis] of the right to freedom of expression but also the right to a fair trial.”

Daneshjoo’s wife told Human Rights Watch that her lawyer husband and his lawyers told her that the authorities have deprived all the defendants of access to their lawyers and the right to review their own case files. She said she feels the authorities convicted her husband of “propaganda against the state” in part because he had given media interviews on behalf of clients who are members of the order. She also said that the charge of “insulting the Supreme Leader” related to an open letter to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on the website in 2010 in which the authors accused the authorities of targeting members of the order in an “organized fashion,” including destroying their houses of worship, denying them the right to conduct rituals, firing them from government posts, and arbitrarily arresting and detaining them.

Unlike the other six defendants, before his prosecution on charges related to the web site, Daneshjoo had been serving a seven-month prison sentence for “publishing lies” and “disturbing the public mind” in connection with his defense of members of the order. That prison term ended in December 2011. Before he could be released, judicial authorities consolidated his case with that of the other six defendants and transferred him to Evin Prison.

Security and intelligence forces arrested the six other Majzooban-e Noor site administrators and lawyers between September 3 and 11, 2011, in Tehran and Shiraz. The arrests followed clashes between plainclothes and paramilitary Basij militia and members of the order in the city of Kavar, 30 kilometers south of Shiraz. Accounts on Majzooban-e Noor say that pro-government forces arrived in Kavar on August 27, and began harassing members of the order. On September 1, the reports said, the forces attacked Sufi homes and businesses, which led to clashes, dozens of injuries, and the death of at least one Sufi resident.

Following the clashes, security forces have arrested more than 200 members of the order, Farhad Nouri said. More than 50 remain either in detention or under prosecution, and several dozen face serious national security charges, including for moharebeh, or “enmity against God,” for allegedly carrying arms and taking part in violence against security forces. Under Iran’s penal code, the crime of moharebeh, which can carry the death penalty, is often used against people alleged to have used or threatened violence in a way that threatens public security.

Alireza Roshan and Mostafa Abdi, two other Majzooban-e Noor administrators arrested following the Kavar clashes, are also in Evin Prison. In a separate action, Branch 26 of Tehran’s Revolutionary Court sentenced Roshan to one year in prison on national security charges, upheld on appeal. Abdi has not yet been convicted.

At least five other Nematollahi Gonabadi members are detained in Adel Abad prison allegedly in connection with the Kavar clashes. They are Kasra Nouri, Seyed Ebrahim Bahrami, Mohammad-Ali Sadeghi, Mohammad-Ali Dehghan, and Mohsen Esmaili. In April, a revolutionary court convicted Nouri of various national security crimes in connection with his activities with the website and sentenced him to four years and four months in prison.

Nouri and Saleh Moradi, who was just sentenced to three years in prison and had previously spent 22 months in pre-trial detention before being conditionally released on June 11, initiated a hunger strike in January in solidarity with the group of seven defendants in Evin Prison who were sent to solitary confinement. They ended the hunger strike in April, after the seven were transferred back.

Followers of the Nematollahi Gonabadi order claim at least five million members throughout the country, though no official statistics are available. Since 2005, Iranian security and intelligence forces have increasingly targeted this group, members say.

During a visit to Qom in October 2010, Ayatollah Khamenei spoke of the “need to combat false and misleading beliefs.” High-level Iranian officials, including leaders of the clerical establishment, have expressed concern at what they see as the rising popularity of what they see as “deviant” faiths or beliefs, including the Nematollahi Gonabadi order Baha’is and evangelical Protestant churches, especially among youth.

In 2006, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad empowered the General Cultural Council to carry out policies aimed at confronting “deviant groups,” especially those of a spiritual or religious nature. The General Cultural Council is an arm of the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution, an executive agency charged with promulgating regulations in public sector employment and education.

 

Mohammad Ghanbari set himself on fire in front of Islamic Parliament

Members of Ahl-e Haqq have gathered in front of the Parliament in protest

Posted on: 28th July, 2013
HRANA News Agency – Mohammad Ghanbari, a member of Ahl-e Haqq, set himself on fire in front of the Islamic Parliament on Saturday morning to protest against the government’s failure to address the grievances of this religious minority.  Ghanbari suffered severe burns and was immediately taken to the hospital by the parliament’s security personnel.  Finally, he succumbed to his injuries and died at Tehran’s Shahid Motahari Hospital in late afternoon.
According to a report by Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), following the news of his death, many members of Ahl-e Haqq have been gathering in front of the Islamic Parliament, and their numbers are increasing with every passing minute.
Ghanbari was 22 years old and a resident of Qazvin in northern Iran.  While at the hospital, he was kept under police watch, and no one was allowed to see him or inquire about his condition.

Previously, two other members of Ahl-e Haqq had died of self-immolation in Iran.  Hassan Razavi and Nimkard Tahari set themselves on fire separately in front of the main administrative office in the city of Hamadan on June 4th and 5th respectively.  At their funerals, other members of Ahl-e Haqq had threatened to set themselves on fire if their grievances were not addressed by government officials.

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