A Danish high court on Thursday upheld the seven-year sentence given to a Norwegian citizen of Iranian heritage for spying and complicity in a failed plot to kill an Iranian Arab opposition figure in Denmark. The case, which exposed an intelligence power struggle on Danish soil between Saudi Arabia and Iran, led Denmark to call for EU-wide sanctions on Iran in 2018 following the Norwegian man’s arrest. “A unanimous jury in the Eastern High Court has found an Iranian man guilty of illegal intelligence activities and complicity in an attempted murder of an exiled Iranian in Ringsted,” the Danish public prosecutor said on Twitter on Thursday.
A 20-year-old gay man was allegedly killed by his family members in Iran in a case of honour killing. The news of the killing was posted on social media by US-based Iranian journalist and activist Masih Alinejad. “Rest in peace Alireza Fazeli Monfared,” said Alinejad. According to the Alinejad, Alireza was brutally killed by his brother and cousins for being gay. Honour killing is the murder of a family member by another member of the family or social group, due to the belief that the victim has brought dishonour upon the family.
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) is urging Iranian authorities to release from prison three journalists who it said are being denied appropriate medical care after “almost certainly” catching COVID-19 while in detention. Baktash Abtin, Reza Khandan Mahabadi, and Kayvan Samimi Behbahani “must be freed at once,” the Paris-based media freedom watchdog said on May 7. Abtin and Mahabadi are members of the Association of Iranian Writers, which has come under pressure by authorities who have summoned, threatened, and jailed its members.
Less than a year after Iranian wrestler Navid Afkari was executed by Islamic Republic of Iran for allegedly participating in demonstrations against the regime’s corruption, his brother may face a similar fate. According to Masih Alinejad, the founder of the United for Navid campaign, Iran’s regime threatened to execute his jailed brother, Vahid Afkari, if he “doesn’t agree to make forced confessions.” “His life is in danger,” Alinejad stated on Twitter.
Three men murdered 20-year-old Alireza “Ali” Fazeli-Monfared on Tuesday in the Iranian city of Ahvaz allegedly because they learned the Iranian military exempted him due to “moral and sexual depravities such as transsexualism.” Iranian news organizations outside of the Islamic Republic reported on Friday and Saturday about the anti-gay and anti-transgender murder of Fazeli-Monfared after at least two members of his family became aware of a letter from the Iranian regime’s conscription military organization declaring him ineligible because of his sexual orientation.
Stories about the derogatory treatment of the LGBT community in Iran have dominated global headlines over the past several months. Recent reports indicate that the LGBT community in the Persian nation have been subject to gruesome, targeted attacks. Many of these incidents are rooted in Iranian religious and cultural values. In many ways, these recent attacks are emblematic of a larger trend in the country. The government cracks down on groups and individuals that it views as immoral or dissonant to its values and authority. The international community must step in and demand that the Iranian regime respect fundamental human rights.
Iran’s Supreme Leader has called on Muslim nations to keep fighting against Israel, which he says is not a state but a “terrorist garrison” against the Palestinians. “The fight against this despotic regime is the fight against oppression and the fight against terrorism. And this is a public duty to fight against this regime,” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in a televised speech on Friday.
While Israel is seeking to dissuade the Biden administration from rejoining the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran — currently the subject of indirect negotiations in Vienna — Tehran’s mullahs and their Lebanese Hezbollah terror proxy are busy drowning the Arab countries with drugs. Last week, Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to Lebanon, Walid Al-Bukhari, revealed that Saudi authorities recently foiled an attempt to smuggle large quantities of drugs from Lebanon. The smuggled drugs, he said, were “enough to drown the whole Arab world. The drugs were not meant to be distributed in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia only, but also in different parts of the Arab world.” Al-Bukhari’s remarks came days after Saudi Arabia announced that it had thwarted an attempt to smuggle 2.4 million narcotic tablets into the Kingdom hidden in a shipment of pomegranates.
Moroccan Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita said on Thursday that Iran was acting through its proxies to destabilize the African region and threaten the territorial integrity of Morocco. “People know more about Iran’s nuclear activities, but Iran is also acting through proxies to destabilize North and West Africa,” the FM said in an interview with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) TV channel, on the sidelines of its annual meeting.
Morocco ramped up its rhetoric on Iran Thursday, saying the Islamic Republic has been threatening the kingdom’s territorial integrity. “The world knows a lot about Iran’s nuclear activities, but Iran is also working through proxies to destabilise North and West Africa,” Moroccan Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita said During an interview with the American-Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) on the sidelines of its annual meeting, which is the first to witness an official Moroccan participation, Bourita said that “Iran threatens Morocco’s territorial integrity and security” by supporting the Polisario Front, “providing the group with weapons, and training its militias to attack Morocco.”
Iran’s Quds Force commander, Hassan Erlo, is acting as de facto ruler of areas controlled by the Houthi militia, a senior Yemeni official has said. Erlo (Irlo) is Iran’s ambassador to Sana’a. Erlo’s movements are highlighted by the Houthis’ media outfit, which confirms that he is acting as a leader, Muammar Al-Eryani, Yemen’s minister of information, culture and tourism, said on Wednesday. Eryani was quoted by state news agency SABA as saying that the Quds Force commander’s actions show that the Houthi leadership takes political, military and administrative orders from the Tehran regime. Iran sends its orders through Erlo, the minister added.
The family of a British-Iranian retired engineer held in Iran fear he will be forgotten as the government negotiates freedom for Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe in return for £400 million. Elika Ashoori said that government officials and ministers “refused to use the name” of her father, Anoosheh, when discussing the hostage crisis. Like Zaghari-Ratcliffe, he has been told his ten-year prison term for “spying” in Iran is linked to a British government debt to Tehran of £400 million for an aborted arms deal. When the issue is discussed publicly, she says, officials and ministers assiduously avoid mentioning her father.
Protests are expected again in Iraq after demonstrators set fire to trailers belonging to Iran’s consulate in Karbala as anger spread over the killing of a prominent activist in the southern city. Ihab Jawad al-Wazni, who was active in the organisation of the anti-government protests that swept Iraq in October 2019, was shot dead on Sunday outside his home by unknown assailants. His death sparked daylong protests in Karbala that saw demonstrators block roads and bridges with burning tyres.
Iran was given a four-year ban by the International Judo Federation (IJF) for “repeated and very severe breaches” of the organisation’s statutes after it pressured one of its fighters not to face an Israeli athlete. Judo’s world governing body imposed the ban on April 29 after the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) last month lifted a previous indefinite suspension and ordered a disciplinary review. The IJF had previously sanctioned Iran in October for putting pressure on fighter Saeid Mollaei to withdraw from the World Championships to avoid a potential final round against Israeli contender Sagi Muki.
In an open letter published by Justice for the Victims of the 1988 Massacre in Iran (JVMI), more than 150 former United Nations officials and renowned international human rights and legal experts urged UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet to launch an international commission of inquiry into the mass extrajudicial executions of political prisoners in Iran in 1988. In their letter, the signatories mentioned a letter by seven UN Special Rapporteurs to the Iranian authorities in September 2020. The rapporteurs had stated the 1988 extrajudicial executions and forced disappearances of thousands of political prisoners “may amount to crimes against humanity.”
The Islamic Republic’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has effectively put an end to the election hopes of two of the three leading candidates named by Iran’s reform camp for the June presidential election. During the weekend, Iran’s reformists published a list of 14 potential candidates(link is external) named by the umbrella organization of Iranian reformists. Foreign Minister Javad Zarif was the most popular figure with 37 votes, Vice President Es’haq Jahangiri came second with 35 votes, and former deputy interior minister Mostafa Tajzadeh was the third nominee with 32 votes. They were by far ahead of all other 11 political figures. However, those named in the list may present their plans for their prospective presidency to the umbrella organization.
Nearly 70 million people in Iran cannot afford rice following price increases, according to the secretary of the Rice Importers Association, which is terrible for nutrition because nothing is taking its place. This is the case for 67 million Iranians in the middle, working, and impoverished classes, according to the state-run Shahrvand Online website, which did not mention that 80% of Iranians live below the poverty line.
A former official of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards who has thrown his hat into the ring for Iran’s June 18 presidential election pledged Saturday to initiate change and build a “powerful” government. Saeed Mohammad, 53, headed the Guards’ construction and engineering arm for over two years before announcing his resignation in early March to run in the poll. Candidates have yet to be vetted by the Islamic republic’s Guardian Council.
Iran’s election-vetting body has spelled out conditions for running in next month’s presidential poll, potentially barring several high-profile candidates, local media reported Thursday. The conservative-dominated Guardian Council complained earlier this week of the “unpleasant situation” that allowed would-be candidates lacking basic requirements to register to run in the election held every four years. Under the Islamic republic’s constitution, candidates for the presidency require vague qualifications such as being among “political and religious” figures.
Iran needs to focus on developing its refining and petrochemical sectors, so that it eventually does not have to export crude and expose itself to international sanctions, according to the country’s former oil minister Rostam Ghasemi, who is now running for president. “In my expertise and experience in the area of oil, my priority is processing crude oil into oil products,” Ghasemi told S&P Global Platts in an exclusive interview. “This must happen, because it guarantees our national security in the global oil market, even under sanctions. Under any conditions, it’s possible to sell oil products. Secondly, it brings added value and can create jobs.”
Could Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei be near death? American and Israeli Intelligence analysts have been debating the state of the Iranian political and spiritual leader’s health since Khamenei posted a tweet Wednesday asking supporters to pray for him. The tweet – “I ask all of you dear ones to pray for me” – appeared on “Khameneil.ir,” a Twitter site in English closely followed by Iran watchers and viewed as more or less official. The tweet has also sparked speculation about what it means for the Biden administration’s effort to revive and strengthen the 2015 Iran nuclear pact, the arms control agreement with Iran which Donald Trump unilaterally abandoned exactly three years ago Saturday.
The Islamic Republic will hold its thirteenth presidential election on June 18. The Guardian Council, a twelve-member body comprised of six clerics and six attorneys, will announce the list of candidates allowed to run for president. While the final list of candidates will not be announced by the Guardian Council before May 26, it can be said with certainty that whoever emerges victorious will not have a material impact on Iran’s domestic or foreign policy. Iran has had seven presidents. The first one, Abolhassan Bani-Sadr—who served a little over a year from 1980 until 1981—is in exile in France. The second one, Mohammad Ali Rajaei, was assassinated in a bombing in 1981. The third one, Ali Khamenei—who was president during 1981-1989—is the current Supreme Leader. The fourth, fifth, and sixth presidents have been sidelined after the end of their respective presidencies.
نتشار خبر قتل علی فاضلی منفرد، معروف به علیرضا، به دست اعضای خانوادهاش در رسانههای فارسیزبان خارج از ایران و نیز کاربران شبکههای اجتماعی، بار دیگر توجهها را معطوف به ستم مضاعف حکومت و جامعه ایران در حق این اقلیت به شدت آسیبپذیر نمود. تنها «جرم» علیرضای ٢٠ ساله، گرایش جنسیاش بود. اما تشخیص «جرم»، محاکمه این «مجرم» عاشق زیبایی و زندگی، و نهایتا اجرای «حکم» همه و همه توسط اعضای خانوادهاش صورت گرفت و علیرضای سرشار از عشق و رهایی و آزادی را به نام «آبرو» به کام مرگ فرستاد. بنا به گزارش سازمان ششرنگ، شبکه لزبینها و ترنسجندرهای ایرانی، قتل علیرضا «در پی آشکار شدن گرایش جنسی برای برادران (ناتنی) علیرضا پس از بازکردن پاکت حاوی کارت معافیت سربازی وی صورت گرفته است.
همزمان با تداوم بحران کرونا در ایران، تجمعات اعتراضی اقشار مختلف مردم در برخی شهرهای کشور همچنان ادامه دارد. به رغم تصمیم مقامهای آموزش و پرورش مبنی بر برگزاری حضوری امتحانات نهایی پایه نهم و دوازدهم، امروز شنبه دانش آموزان ایلام، مقابل ساختمان آموزش و پرورش دست به تجمع اعتراضی و راهپیمایی زدند. طی روزهای گذشته، دانش آموزان معترض مقابل ادارات آموزش و پرورش شهرهای تهران، قزوین زنجان و یزد تجمع کردند. گزارشهایی از برخورد خشونت آمیز نیروهای انتظامی با دانش آموزان معترض در برخی شهرها، از جمله یزد، در شبکههای اجتماعی منتشر شده است.
سازمان حقوق بشر ایران» رفتار مقامهای جمهوری اسلامی با وحید و حبیب افکاری، برادران نوید افکاری، و نگهداشتن آنها در سلول انفرادی را مصداق بارز شکنجه دانست و خواستار آزادی فوری برادران افکاری شد. همزمان در رسانههای اجتماعی نیز کارزارهای گستردهای برای حمایت از این دو زندانی سیاسی به راه افتاده است. براساس بیانیه سازمان حقوق بشر ایران که روز یکشنبه، ۱۹ اردیبهشتماه، منتشر شد، وحید و حبیب افکاری که از تاریخ ۱۵ شهریور ماه سال ۱۳۹۹، چند روز پیش از اعدام برادرشان نوید، در سلول انفرادی نگهداری میشوند، با گذشت هشت ماه، همچنان از تماس با خانواده، وکیل و حق درمان محروماند..