Iranian police opened fire late Sunday night amid protests against water shortages in southwestern Iran, a video showed, the latest unrest after days of demonstrations that have seen at least one person killed. The video from the Human Rights Activists News Agency by Human Rights Activists in Iran showed the shooting in Susangerd, which has been an epicenter of demonstrations in Iran’s restive Khuzestan province. A police officer fires into the air with a pistol and at least one other shot can be heard in the footage.
The son of an American-Iranian dissident kidnapped by the Iranian authorities and not seen in public for a year, has called on the international community to speak out – saying he increasingly fears for his ailing father’s wellbeing. Days after Iran was accused of plotting to kidnap New York City-based reporter Masih Alinejad, and even researching making use of a speedboat to spirit her away from Brooklyn, the son of Jamshid Sharmahd said it was vital to speak out over the fate of his father, who was seized a year ago in a manner only sightly less unlikely.
According to local reports, nine Iranian political prisoners sentenced to death or long-term imprisonment in Mashhad Vakil Abad Prison in a letter asked international human rights organizations for help. They addressed the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran Javaid Rehman and explained the regime’s pressures on themselves and their families. They emphasized that all charges were false, and everything was under pressure and torture and forced confessions and that the regime’s infamous Ministry of Intelligence is responsible for the suffering of their families.
Political prisoners Afshin Baymani and Abolghasem Fouladvand have been denied access to medical treatment in Rajai Shahr Prison. Iranian prison authorities have denied the two prisoners access to adequate medical treatment and transfer to a hospital. Abolghasem Fouladvand was taken to Madani Hospital on Saturday night due to his deteriorating condition and showing symptoms of a heart attack. But he was returned to prison on Sunday, July 11, without completing his treatment and while still suffering from heart condition.
A female political prisoner in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison in an audio file has said that six women have contracted the coronavirus, but judicial and prison officials ignore the issue while there is no medical care available. Aliyeh Motallebzadeh, a women’s rights activist serving a two-year prison sentence since October 2020, in a conversation with her husband Sadra Abdollahi released on Saturday said that three women with Covid-19 have been put in isolation without any medical care. “They’ve shut the door and locked it,” she said about the female prisoners.
Iran’s hardline media, put out video interviews with family members of two young men killed during demonstrations in Khuzestan Province, saying they were not involved in the protests, and they even had good relations with the Revolutionary Guard and the Basij militia. Some social media users, however, are highly suspicious of the circumstances in which the interviews were made and claim the families may have been under pressure to absolve the security forces of responsibility in the killings.
An Iranian revolutionary court has sentenced Manouchehr Bakhtiari to six years in prison, two and a half years in internal exile, and a two-year ban from leaving the country for what he says was seeking justice for his son. Bakhtiari’s family have published an audio file of his only phone call to the family since his arrest on April 28. His whereabouts were unknown before his phone call on Thursday when he informed them of his sentence and that he was held in Karaj Central Prison. Bakhtiari told his family he had not been allowed to appoint a lawyer to represent him in the trial, that he “did not recognize” the court and that his sentence was unjust.
Leading rights group Human Rights Watch (HRW) has warned that an alleged plot this week by four Iranians to kidnap a dissident journalist living in New York has heightened concerns about Tehran’s efforts to target its nationals and critics abroad. On July 13, the US Justice Department indicted the four Iranian nationals at a New York federal court, which said that the four men allegedly “conspired to kidnap a Brooklyn journalist, author and human rights activist for mobilizing public opinion in Iran and around the world to bring about changes to the regime’s laws and practices.”
Sitting nervously in an airport, Mahdi Jafargholizadeh had a hunch his getaway plan had been rumbled. A karate champion in Iran, he had paid a smuggler to take him to Canada, but his journey ended at the boarding gate. He was arrested in 2004 on suspicion of planning to be a spy for Israel, Iran’s arch-enemy. The authorities in Iran heavily suppress freedom of expression, and crack down harshly on dissent. Even top athletes risk prosecution on what rights groups say are vague charges if they criticise authorities, as Mr Jafargholizadeh did.
A delegation of Iranian dissidents and expatriates plans to pay a solidarity visit to Israel next week with officials from the Trump administration. The mission is being organized by the Institute for Voices of Liberty (iVOL), a policy institute dedicated to encouraging freedom, human rights and democracy in Iran, it said in a press release. It includes eight Iranian expats and four former officials and is meant to demonstrate support for Israel in light of the latest attacks by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which are sponsored by Iran.
A former Iranian political prisoner, Ahmad Batebi, will join a delegation of Iranian dissidents on a goodwill mission to Israel next week, he told Fox News in an exclusive interview. He also attacked the Biden administration over its decision to reengage in negotiations with Iran on a nuclear deal. Batebi’s critique follows the Biden administration’s decision earlier this year to resume nuclear talks with Iran and comes just one day after the FBI said Iranian intelligence agents plotted to abduct an Iranian American journalist on U.S. soil.
Iran insisted on Sunday that a prisoner swap deal has been agreed with the United States, the Iranian foreign ministry spokesman said, a day after Washington denied such an agreement had been reached. “‘Outrageous’ = the US denying simple fact that there IS an agreed deal on the matter of the detainees. Even on how to announce it,” Saeed Khatibzadeh said in a tweet. “Humanitarian swap was agreed with US & UK in Vienna-separate from JCPOA (the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action)- on release of 10 prisoners on all sides. Iran is ready to proceed TODAY.”
A group of 17 Senate Republicans introduced a bill on Friday that seeks to impose sanctions on Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Ebrahim Raisi, who was elected president in June. The bill calls on President Joe Biden to impose sanctions on the two in accordance with the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act. “The Biden administration has rushed to dismantle sanctions on the Iranian regime and is looking to remove what’s left of American pressure,” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who led the legislation, said in a statement.
A host of authoritarian regimes have tried to silence exiled dissidents and other foreign critics in recent years with tactics ranging from holding family members hostage to kidnapping and murder. Russia’s Vladimir Putin may be the most prolific, with multiple assassinations and poisonings on his account; Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman the most brazen, having dispatched a team to butcher journalist and Post contributing columnist Jamal Khashoggi with a bone saw inside one of the kingdom’s own foreign consulates.
سرپرست فرمانداری شادگان تائید کرده که در جریان تظاهرات شب گذشته در شادگان در اعتراض به بیآبی، یک نفر کشته شده است.امید صبری پور به خبرگزاری ایرنا گفته است “یک شهروند جوان” به ضرب گلوله کشته شد. او مدعی شده “افراد فرصت طلب و اغتشاشگر” این فرد را هدف قرار دادند. وبسایتهای محلی نام جوان کشته شده را مصطفی نعیماوی اعلام کردهاند. در تجمعات اخیر گزارشهایی از تیراندازی منتشر شده است. شب پیش، در دومین روز اعتراضها در خوزستان، مردم در شهرهای مختلف در اعتراض به بیآبی به خیابان رفته و علیه مقامها شعار سر دادند. طبق ویدیوهای منتشر شده در شادگان نیز تجمعی برگزار شده بود. در این شهر عدهای با پرچم جنبش عربی برای آزادی اهواز سوار بر موتور در خیابانها حضور داشتند.
در حالی که «تنش آبی بسیار شدید» در استان خوزستان طی سه روز گذشته با اعتراض های گسترده مردم این استان و برخورد نیروهای امنیتی و کشته شدن دستکم دو تن از معترضان همراه بوده، و در شرایطی که مقامات محلی و دولتی طرح مشخصی برای تامین دایمی آب آشامیدنی در خوزستان ارایه نکرده اند، بنیاد برکت وابسته به «ستاد اجرایی فرمان امام» برای آبرسانی با لوله و تانکر قراردادی ۱۵۰ میلیارد تومانی با آبفای خوزستان منعقد کرده است. برکت، همان بنیادی است که در ایران مسئولیت ساخت و توزیع واکسن بحث برانگیز «کوو ایران برکت» را برای مقابله با همه گیری کرونا بر عهده دارد.
بنا بر اعلام منابع حقوق بشری طی روزهای گذشته حکم اعدام دستکم هفت زندانی در ایران اجرا شده است. بنا بر گزارشهای منتشره، مقامات قضایی جمهوری اسلامی ایران امروز یکشنبه ۲۷ تیر دو تن را در ارومیه اعدام کردند. بنا بر حکم مقامات قضایی، همچنین سه زندانی روز سهشنبه در اصفهان، و دو زندانی دیگر روز چهارشنبه گذشته در اعدام شدند. به گزارش سازمان حقوق بشر ایران، صبح یکشنبه ۲۷ تیر دو مرد به نامهای بابک اصلانی و محسن اصل حسینی به اتهام «قتل عمد» در زندان مرکزی ارومیه اعدام شدند. همچنین هرانا اعلام کرده است که سهشنبه ۲۲ تیر سه زندانی به اتهامهای مرتبط با جرایم مواد مخدر در زندان مرکزی اصفهان اعدام شدند. هویت این زندانیان رئوف رضاییفر، هاشم باورمند، و محمد فرخی اعلام شده است.