A top U.S. State Department official came out swinging Sunday against the Islamic Republic of Iran’s plan to execute another wrestler, after Tehran’s rulers publicly hanged the champion wrestler Navid Afkari in September on widely criticized, trumped-up charges. “The Iranian regime must be held to account for their vile human rights abuses and their attempt to cling to power through execution,” Ellie Cohanim, the State Department’s deputy special envoy to monitor and combat anti-Semitism, told Fox News. The execution of the decorated wrestler Mehdi Ali Hosseini is imminent.
Iran is being criticized by international rights groups for putting politics above its own people after Tehran banned imports of British and U.S. COVID-19 vaccines. The criticism comes after Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on January 8 that imports of U.S. and British vaccines into Iran were “forbidden.” U.S. firms Pfizer and Moderna, as well as Britain’s AstraZeneca, have developed coronavirus vaccines that are already being distributed to millions of people in the United States, the United Kingdom, and across the world.
One of Iran’s longest-serving political prisoners Gholam Hossein Kalbi started the 21st year of his life imprisonment sentence in Sheiban Prison of Ahvaz. The authorities have not granted him any prison leave in the past 20 years, despite his serious medical issues that require treatment. Gholam Hossein Kalbi was arrested in the city Dezful in January 2001 for being a member of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK).
Iran has executed 30 prisoners in just under three weeks, according to a report by the Iranian Resistance. This list of executions includes at least two political prisoners and three Sunni prisoners, Hamid Rastbala, Kabir Sa’adat Jahani, and Mohammad Ali Arayesh. The latest executions came on the same day that State Security Force (SSF) deputy commander Qassem Rezaei instructed his agents to “break the arms” of defiant youth and claimed that the only right prisoners have is to life, which not only shows violations of international law but also seems to say that the executions violate the rights of prisoners.
The country’s top human-rights watchdog declared that more than two people were killed in as many days, with 43 wounded, including safety members and 30 detained in protests in Zikar province Iraq. According to Iraq’s Independent High Commission for Human Rights, beside the assassinations and abductions, security forces’ use of tear gas, real and plastic bullets, and demonstrators’ use of stones were documented. Demonstrations have led to the resignation of the government of former Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi.
The Revolutionary Court of Dezful has sentenced three young men to a total of 40 years in prison for participating in protests over a rise in gasoline prices in November 2019. The three protesters Ra’d Hamdani, 23, Ghasi Khasraji, 19, and Sajjad Dabat, 20, were arrested in the November 2019 nationwide protests by intelligence agents in Shush county, southwestern Iran. Ra’d Hmdani has been sentenced to 20 years in prison while Ghasi Khasraji and Sajjad Dabat have been each sentenced to 10 years on the charges of Moharebeh (waging war against God) through setting fire to a gas station and a images of Ali Khamenei.
Torture and ill-treatment of prisoners is a common practice in Iran prisons. Torture is one of the most inhuman methods of extracting confession and imposing pressure on dissidents. This method has been systematically used in prisons during the rule of the mullahs’ regime. Judiciary and Intelligence officials have always denied use of torture and ill-treatment of prisoners in prisons. Therefore, there is no fundamental or legal procedure in the Iranian judicial and legal system against torture.
The Iranian regime breached its obligations based on international covenants on the right to life and on the health of prisoners. It brought tremendous pressure on prisoners. Prisoners of conscience and political prisoners underwent increasing pressure last year and were harassed, mistreated and tortured in prisons. To pressure and punish political prisoners and prisoners of conscience, judicial authorities transferred them to the wards of ordinary prisoners with common and dangerous crimes.
Flogging and amputation sentences are among the cruelest punishments commonly used by the Iranian regime. International human rights organizations and the UN have time and again censured Iran for issuing and carrying out such verdicts. At least 19 flogging verdicts were carried out in 2020 against labor activists, religious and ethnic minorities, protesters and ordinary citizens. Dozens of others were sentenced to flogging because of posting comments critical of government officials in social media, participating in peaceful protests, following up on their basic rights, robbery or drinking alcohol.
On the morning of Sunday, January 3, 2021, municipal officials of Palayin village of Aftab district of Tehran Province, supported by the State Security Force (SSF), beat up a shopkeeper and demolished his store because he had refused to pay a ransom. In a clip posted on social media, the owner of the shop explains the incident thus: “Monday, January 4, 2021(Time of recording the message on footage) – “The municipality agents of District 19- Section 4 of Palayin, show up here every day to blackmail me.
Iran has granted a three-day medical release for internationally renowned human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh, her husband said Friday. “Nasrin came on medical leave for three days a few hours ago to continue her treatment,” Reza Khandan tweeted, along with a picture of him and Sotoudeh. The 57-year-old Iranian attorney is serving a more than 30-year prison sentence after her March 2019 conviction on seven charges related to her legal work, which included defending Iranian women arrested for taking off their hijabs. She must serve 12 years before she is eligible for parole.
…Behind China, the list includes Iran, Cameroon, Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, Zimbabwe, Cuba, Turkey, North Korea, and Russia, respectively. The ideological motivations for human rights abuses in these countries differ. North Korea, Venezuela, Cuba and China are Communist or socialist states. Zimbabwe, Russia, Turkey, and Cameroon are ruled by autocratic leaders who hold onto power using violence. Saudi Arabia and Iran are Islamic theocracies.
The wall of mistrust between the people and the rulers of Iran is growing ever higher. Contributing factors to this widening gap are too many to mention, but they include: State embezzlement, bribery, social unemployment, unbridled inflation, the display of the luxurious lives of the elites, and most importantly, the dissolution of the middle class, along with ever-increasing poverty. The “Army of the Hungry” stands ready to revolt at a moment’s notice. The latest official statistics show that 7 out of 10 citizens live below the poverty line.
Iranian workers and investors held a rally and a strike on Friday against corruption by officials in Iran. The protests were held by members of Shiraz Housing Cooperative and workers and employees of Haft-Tappeh Sugarcane Complex in the provinces of Fars and Khuzestan respectively. Although Fridays count as a weekend in Iran, these rallies were an indication that much of Iran’s society can no longer endure economic pressure and will use any opportunity to vent their anger at the authorities.
While protests are increasingly common across Iran, in spite of the dangers posed by both the coronavirus pandemic and the state security forces, these past few days have seen intense protests from nurses and healthcare workers. They’ve actually held seven protests in the last four days alone across Ahvaz, Shiraz, Yazd, Yasouj, Bafgh, and Karaj, which we will look at here, all to demand their wages and benefits be paid. Many nurses from the medical centers and hospitals in Ahvaz and its surrounding cities held a protest on Tuesday outside the Khuzestan Governorate to protest unfair discrimination and a lack of job security, as well as to demand that they be paid the same as officially hired nurses.
Along with increasing the number of executions, officials of Iran’s clerical regime explicitly call for more oppressive measures and defend the regime’s medieval methods. Their remarks confirm the regime’s disregard for global humanitarian standards and require a firm action by the international community. “The Global Arrogance [international community] monitors Iran [regime] regarding [hand amputation] and questions the implementation of Islamic codes, and has tightened the hands of judges.
On December 12, 2020, Iranian authorities had executed Ruhollah Zam, an Iranian dissident and journalist who was living in exile in Paris since 2009, on the charge of “sowing corruption on earth” — a vague charge often wielded by the Iranian establishment against those who either criticise or oppose it. The aforesaid charge against Ruhollah Zam was associated with national security grounds — something which the Iranian establishment uses to silence a person from either speaking against the establishment’s human rights abuses or promoting lawful views that are opposite to what the establishment upholds or protesting in response to the establishment’s failures to properly govern the country.
On December 12, the Iranian government executed Ruhollah Zam, a prominent Iranian journalist, and dissident, after convicting him on vague national security charges. Zam’s execution demonstrates the threat the Iranian regime poses to political dissidents, including those living abroad. It also underscored the country’s continuous disregard for international law and norms. The United States and its allies are investing significantly in pushing back against Iran’s growing influence in the Middle East and worldwide.
بازداشت دستکم ۱۴ فعال مدنی و دانشجوی کرد در چند روز گذشته، انتقاد نهادهای ناظر بر وضعیت حقوق بشر در ایران را به دنبال داشته است.
ارسلان یاراحمدی، سردبیر وبسایت سازمان حقوق بشری ههنگاو به بی بی سی فارسی گفت اغلب بازداشتیها در فعالیت مدنی و انجمنهای کوهنوردی و زیست محیطی فعالیت داشتهاند. به گفته ارسلان یاراحمدی “بازداشتها عمدتا از سوی نیروهای اداره اطلاعات کردستان و آذربایجان غربی انجام شده است.
ه گزارش منابع خبری ایران روند محاکمه هشت فعال محیط زیست که بیش از یک سال پیش بازداشت شده بودند به طور غیرعلنی شروع شده است.
مراد طاهباز، سام رجبی، امیرحسین خالقی، هومن جوکار، سپیده کاشانی، نیلوفر بیانی، طاهر قدیریان، عبدالرضا کوهپایه بهمن ماه ۱۳۹۶ به اتهام جاسوسی بازداشت شده بودند، هرچند اتهام شماری از آنها تغییر کرده و سنگین تر شده است. بنابه گزارش ها جلسه رسیدگی به اتهامات این فعالان صبح چهارشنبه ۱۰ بهمن در شعبه ۱۵ دادگاه انقلاب به ریاست ابوالقاسم صلواتی برگزار شد.
مولوی عبدالحمید، امام جمعه اهل سنت زاهدان، در نامهای انتقادی با پرداختن به مشکلات و نگرانیهای اهل سنت در ایران، گفت که شرایط اهل سنت ایران در ۴۲ سال گذشته در ایران موجب شده که آنها احساس کنند «شهروند درجۀ چندم بهحساب میآیند. مولوی عبدالحمید در این نامه که روز سهشنبه ۱۶ دی ماه توسط دفتر امام جمعه اهل سنت زاهدان منتشر شده، با اشاره به «نقش تأثیرگذار اهلسنت در انسجام ملی و حفظ امنیت کشور» خطاب به آیتالله علی خامنهای، رهبر جمهوری اسلامیِ، عدم انتصاب «شایستگان اهل سنت» به عنوان وزیر، استاندار، مشاور، و یا معاون رئیسجمهوری و «به کارگیری اندک» آنها در وزارتخانهها، نیروهای مسلح، و نیز ادارات مراکز استانهای سنینشین را از جمله «دغدغههای اهل سنت» دانسته است..