Emad Shargi, one of four Americans being held prisoner in Iran as discussions are underway that may return the U.S. to a nuclear agreement with Iran, was suddenly arrested in November, just weeks after Joe Biden won the presidential election. In an exclusive interview with CBS News, the family of the 56-year-old businessman revealed new details about his arrest. Shargi’s daughters — Hannah and Ariana — were emphatic in their conviction that their father was taken in order to be used as leverage by Iran over the Biden administration. “It’s because he’s an American citizen,” Hannah Shargi told CBS News. “And there are three other detainees — the Namazis and Mr. Tahbaz — who are currently there who are American citizens, as well. And they’re all innocent. They have committed no crimes. And the only reason that they were taken is because they’re American citizens — to be used as leverage.”
A treasure trove of documents seized by German police and obtained by the JC reveals the extent to which Tehran’s spies have infiltrated Europe. The documents were found in a hire car used as a mobile intelligence station by Assadollah Assadi, an Iranian spy chief who in February was sentenced to 20 years in prison for masterminding a failed bomb attack in Paris in 2018. The material discloses a sophisticated network of regime agents that stretches across at least 22 cities all over the continent, along with plans for terror attacks using explosives, acid and toxic pathogenic substances.
An Amnesty International report highlighting the violation of human rights in Iran in 2020(link is external) says death penalty was increasingly used by the authorities in Iran as a weapon of political repression against protesters, dissidents and minority groups. “Scores of protesters were charged with ‘enmity against God’ (moharebeh) and ‘spreading corruption on earth’ (efsad f’il arz), which carry the death penalty,” the Amnesty International report said adding that several protesters were sentenced to death following unfair trials based on forced confessions after torture. The IA noted that in December 2020 dissident journalist Ruhollah Zam was executed in connection with his anti-establishment social media news channel on Telegram, Amad News.
Iranian authorities have summoned nine Baha’i citizens to begin prison terms after convicting them of security crimes for peaceful activities including proselytizing for the Baha’i faith. On April 6, nine Baha’i men and women were summoned to serve their prison terms in Alborz Province, west of the capital Tehran. They were told to present themselves within five days to serve their sentences. The nine Baha’i men and women were identified as Houman Khoshnam, Elham Salmanzadeh, Payam Shabani, Kianoush Salmanzadeh, Sorush Agahi, Parvan Manavi, Jamileh Pakrou, Peyman Manavi and Neda Shabani.
Jailed social media activist Zohreh Sarv was flogged 74 times on Monday, April 5, before temporary prison leave. The flogging was carried out while the sentence has already been converted into a fine and after paying the fine, this part of the case was declared closed. However, authorities at Gharchak Prison told the activist that she would not be allowed to be released on temporary leave before the flogging sentence is carried out. Zohreh Sarv was arrested along with another activist Sina Monirzadeh in a joint case on December 24, 2019 for their activities on social media (Instagram) and transferred to the Revolutionary Guards Intelligence Detention Center in Tehran.
A candidate for the presidency of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ali Motahari, who is widely considered a reformist, on Tuesday issued a racist and misogynist diatribe against black men and women during a group telephone call with more than 6,000 participants. Motahari said during a Clubhouse telephone video discussion that “right now they have problems in Europe. Men are not aroused and women are resorting to African men.”
The Iranian regime has resumed executions after a 20-day hiatus around Nowruz holidays, putting to death at least 13 people, 10 of whom were convicted of drug related charges. On April 11, a prisoner identified as Morteza Kabiri was executed in Isfahan Prison after being convicted of drug charges. Three more prisoners in Isfahan Prison are believed to be in imminent danger of execution, according to reports from the province. On the morning of Saturday, April 10, the authorities executed a prisoner identified as Yousef Rasho Hashtian (also known as Bayazid Rashidi).
An influential member of the hardliner-dominated Iranian parliament has said that the 25-year strategic cooperation agreement with China will help Iran to establish control over cyberspace. Mahmoud Nabavian, the chairman of the Article 90 Committee in parliament told Mehr News Agency on Sunday that the Islamic Republic has lost all control over cyberspace, including search engines, social networks and email services. The Islamic Republic has tried for two decades to block websites and social networks that pose a political threat to the regime. Facebook, You Tube, Twitter and tens-of-thousands of websites are blocked by a vast bureaucracy of cyber police. All citizens use VPNs and other circumvention tools to get access to the Internet.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine has slammed Iran for “manipulating” data on the causes behind the shooting down of the Ukraine International Airlines passenger jet flight PS752. “Instead of taking into account the objective remarks based on the international experience of air crash investigations, the Iranian side resorted to irresponsibly accusing Ukraine of the lack of constructiveness,” MFA Ukraine said in a statement. Ukrainian diplomats say “the Iranian side is manipulating when it says that during the two rounds of negotiations, explanations were provided regarding the causes of the disaster.”
The families of two Austrian citizens currently imprisoned in Iran have written an open letter to the Austrian foreign minister Alexander Schallenberg demanding he does more to try and secure their release. Massud Mossaheb and Kamran Ghaderi are both serving ten-year sentences, having been convicted on spying charges. The families say Schallenberg has not made any public request regarding their release, nor complained about their detention or the torture the men have allegedly suffered.
The Republican Study Committee (RSC) has issued a letter to the Chief Executive Officer of the social media app Clubhouse Paul Davison over concerns it presented Iranian foreign minister Javid Zarif a wide platform to express his “propaganda.” Zarif spoke on Clubhouse on March 31 to defend a new pact between Iran and China, while several thousand people tuned in. The conservative lawmakers add the conversation also speaks to the agenda of Big Tech.
An Iranian threat actor has unleashed a new cyberespionage campaign against a possible Lebanese target with a backdoor capable of exfiltrating sensitive information from compromised systems. Cybersecurity firm Check Point attributed the operation to APT34, citing similarities with previous techniques used by the threat actor as well as based on its pattern of victimology. APT34 (aka OilRig) is known for its reconnaissance campaigns aligned with the strategic interests of Iran, primarily hitting financial, government, energy, chemical, and telecommunications industries in the Middle East.
Activists launched a petition against an Iranian academic and theatre director who was slammed for making homophobic remarks in an outrageous rant against the Iran’s LGBTQ+ community. Last month, Ghotboddin Sadegh told Online Art that the neighbourhood around Tehran City Theater had become “very shameful” because “turned into a place for thugs, offenders, and homosexuals who do not observe the cultural sanctity of this place”. In his homophobic rant, he called for the area “to be cordoned off” so it is “not corrupted”, Iran Wire reported.
Iran is ranked 150th out of 156 countries in terms of gender equality, according to the World Economic Forum’s 2021 Global Gender Gap Report, which is a drop of two places from 2020 and eight since 2019. To make matters worse, the WEF bases this report on the official data from countries, so the mullahs’ lack of transparency might be hiding a much more terrible situation for women in terms of economic ability, political power, and social freedoms.
Over 300 prominent Iranian-Americans from Iranian Professionals’ Ad Hoc Committee on Iran many of who have ties to the opposition group Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK) Policy have urged President Joe Biden to focus on defending human rights and democracy in his approach toward Iran. In an open letter to President Biden that was released on Wednesday, April 7, as negotiations between world powers and the Islamic Republic representatives for the revival of the 2015 nuclear deal continue in Vienna, the signatories also urged him “to support the will of the Iranian people for establishing a secular non-nuclear democracy.”
Like other totalitarian regimes, the Islamist theocracy ruling Iran pays lip service to democracy with elections and other trappings of popular sovereignty, but only for the veneer of legitimacy. Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, rules absolutely. Potemkin elections — such as the presidential election coming up in June — serve to distract from a repressive state that with each passing year is more resented but also more intent to kill to survive, both inside Iran and throughout the region.
As we marked Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) this week, parties to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal began talks toward seeing America and Iran return to the accord. It remains crucial that the Iranian regime, which seeks to finish Hitler’s work with its declared desire to eliminate the Jewish state of Israel, be held accountable for its denial of the Holocaust. Don’t take my word for it. Take Iran’s. In 1998, former Iranian President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani opened a rally to commemorate Al-Quds (Jerusalem) day by labeling the fact that 6 million Jews were killed in the Holocaust as “Zionist propaganda.”
در ایران، بازنشستگان برای سومین بار در سال جدید، تجمعهای اعتراضی برگزار کردند، در دست کم بیست شهر. حرف آنها این است که دخل و خرجشان باهم نمیخواند و دولت باید کاری کند. دولت هم وعده داده که لایحهای به مجلس ببرد تا حقوق بازنشستگان، متناسب شود. شبنم شعبانی گزارش میدهد.
فعالان حقوق بشری میگویند زهره سرو، از زندانیان سیاسی در ایران، برای مرخصی از زندان ناچار به تحمل ۷۴ضربه شلاق شده است
خانم سرو، که به دلیل همرسانی مطالبی در اینستاگرام زندانی شده، به خاطر “نگهداری مشروبات الکلی در منزل” هم به شلاق محکوم شده بود که این حکم به جریمه نقدی تبدیل شد و او این جریمه را پرداخته بود. به گزارش هرانا “با این وجود حکم شلاق با اصرار مسئولان زندان و اعلام آنکه بدون اجرای حکم، امکان اعزام به مرخصی وجود ندارد، اجرا شد. این چندمین مورد در سالهای اخیر است که مجازات شلاق بر زندانیان سیاسی ایرانی اجرا میشود.
۳۳۷ تن از نویسندگان، شاعران و اهالی مستقل قلم و فرهنگ طی بیانیهای، ضمن ابراز نگرانی نسبت به شیوع ویروس کرونا در زندان اوین و ابتلای بکتاش آبتین به این بیماری، خواستار آزادی او، رضا خندان مهابادی، کیوان صمیمی، کیوان باژن و سایر نویسندگان و فعالان فرهنگی در بند شدند. در متن منتشر شده آمده است که در این شرایط وخیم، به مرخصی فرستادن زندانیان سیاسی و عقیدتی، خصوصاً نویسندگان در بند، کمترین اقدامی است که در راستای صیانت از جان این افراد میتوان انجام داد. پیشتر هرانا گزارش داد بود که بکتاش آبتین، رضا خندان مهابادی و کیوان باژن، سه تن از اعضای کانون نویسندگان روز شنبه پنج مهر سال گذشته و پس از حضور در واحد اجرای احکام دادسرای اوین بازداشت شدند و به زندان اوین منتقل شدند..