UN High Commissioner For Human Rights Appalled by Execution of Juvenile Offenders in Iran

JUNE 28, 2018

GENEVA (28 June 2018) – UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein on Thursday condemned the continued implementation of the death penalty against juvenile offenders in Iran, stressing that the execution of juvenile offenders is strictly prohibited by international law under all circumstances, regardless of the nature of the crime alleged to have been committed.

Injuries Reported After Iran’s Detained Environmentalists Subjected to Renewed Interrogations

JUNE 28, 2018

Environmentalists detained without charge for the past five months in Tehran’s Evin Prison are once again being subjected to interrogations in the prison’s Ward 2-A under the control of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

“Sam Rajabi’s nose has been injured and Taher Bagherian’s front teeth have been broken and Niloufar Bayani was brought blindfolded to a meeting with her family by an agent who told her mother that Niloufar should cooperate [with her interrogators],” a source close to the detainees’ families told the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) on June 26, 2018. 

Iranian Journalist and Political Activist Detained For Criticizing Iran’s Judiciary

JUNE 28, 2018

Well-known journalist and political activist Hengameh Shahidi was arrested upon leaving a hospital in Iran’s Kish Island after strongly criticizing state policies on social media and in interviews with foreign media.

“My mother Ms. Hengameh Shahidi was arrested this morning by the security establishment and taken to jail after she was discharged from a hospital where she was treated for a heart attack that she suffered a few days earlier,” her daughter Parmis Taherian tweeted on June 26, 2018. 

Political Prisoner “Wasting Away” as Iran Refuses to Provide Medical Tests For Potentially Cancerous Bone Tumor

JUNE 29, 2018

Iranian civil rights activist and political prisoner Arash Sadeghi is being denied medical leave to undergo testing for a bone tumor that could be cancerous.

A source with knowledge of the case told the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) that Sadeghi is “wasting away” in Rajaee Shahr Prison in the city of Karaj and was told by his interrogators in 2017 that he would be denied medical treatment.

“Arash was transferred to a hospital in mid-June [2018] after feeling intense pain in his right shoulder and arm,” said the source in an interview on June 28, 2018.

Iranian Lawyer Arrested For Asserting Executed Sufi Man's Innocence

Zeinab Taheri was arrested on June 19.

June 21, 2018

Iranian authorities have arrested a lawyer for spreading "lies" after claiming that a Sufi man executed this week was wrongfully convicted of killing three police officers, local media report.

The semiofficial Fars news agency said on June 20 that an arrest warrant was issued against Zeinab Taheri for making "false statements" and because of "her lies propagated online claiming [Mohammad Salas] was not guilty."

The Iranian Kurd Human Rights Case of Ramin Hossein Panahi

Why is Iranian Kurd Ramin Hossein Panahi sentenced to death?

June 22, 2018

United Nations (UN) human rights experts have been working to save the life of Ramin Hossein Panahi from execution.

They continue to call for the annulment of the death sentence for the Iranian Kurd. He is only 24-years-old. The news reports have been speaking to Panahi being killed after the end of the month of Ramadan.

The original execution date was set for May 3. However, the date was postponed. The Iranian Supreme Court rejected the calls for a judicial review in late May. Following this decision, the Iranian Supreme Court referred to the decision made by them to the office responsible for the completion of the penalty.

Detained Iranian rights lawyer faces security charges: husband

JUNE 23, 2018

DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran has charged prominent human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh with security offences after re-arresting her earlier this month, her husband was quoted as saying on Saturday.

“My wife has been detained on charges of collusion, (illegal) assembly and propaganda against the system,” Sotoudeh’s husband Reza Khandan said, according to Iran’s semi-official news agency ISNA.

Child Refugees With Disabilities in Iran Struggle to Access Education and Healthcare

JUNE 22, 2018

In interviews conducted by the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) ahead of this year’s World Refugee Day, June 20, 2018, several Afghan refugees in Iran described difficulties accessing basic services including health care and child education.

Refugees with disabilities, particularly children, are often excluded or denied the ability to obtain the limited state services currently provided by Iran.

Iran: Stop Imminent Execution of Kurdish Prisoner, Investigate Evidence of Torture and Denial of Due Process

Fear Grows After Bus Driver Was Executed in Iran Despite Similar Concerns

JUNE 20, 2018

June 20, 2018—The Iranian judiciary should immediately annul the death sentence issued against Kurdish prisoner Ramin Hossein Panahi and investigate credible concerns of torture and denial of due process, the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) said in a statement today.

The judiciary should also investigate the case of the recently executed bus driver Mohammad Salas, due to serious questions regarding the denial of due process in his case as well.

University Student Activists Sentenced to Prison After Being Arrested by President Rouhani’s Intelligence Ministry

JUNE 14, 2018

University of Tehran student activists Sina Darvish Omran and Ali Mozaffari were each sentenced to eight years in prison on June 11, 2018, by Branch 15 of the Revolutionary Court in Tehran for allegedly joining protests in Tehran earlier in the year.

Baha’i Student Expelled From Iranian University One Year Before Graduation

JUNE 14, 2018

Soha Izadi was expelled from a university in the Iranian city of Zanjan, 207 miles west of Tehran, in March 2018 because of her Baha’i faith, a source close to the 21-year-old student’s family informed the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) on June 11, 2018.  

Iran’s Orwellian Arrest of Its Leading Female Human-Rights Lawyer

June 14, 2018

I last spoke with Nasrin Sotoudeh in February, when she was defending young women arrested during the so-called Girls of Revolution Street Protest. Female protesters had been hauled off the streets for daring to take off their hijabs—head coverings required by law in Iran—and waving them at the end of a stick, like a flag of liberation. Their hair hung free. Early protesters appeared, symbolically, on the Tehran thoroughfare renamed for the country’s revolution, in 1979, adding a subtle double-entendre to the new women’s crusade. The protest was all the more striking because they acted individually, not en masse, making them more vulnerable to arrest. The women were charged with “a sinful act” and “violating public prudency” as well as “encouraging immorality or prostitution.” The charges carried sentences of up to a decade in prison.

“This is a civil-disobedience movement,” Sotoudeh, a tiny woman with a steely authority in her voice, told me by phone at the time. “Women know what the laws of the land say about hijab, and, based on that, they chose to protest.” The protest overlapped with economic unrest, in December and January, that swept thirty of Iran’s thirty-one provinces. The twin movements reflected growing public discontent over core issues in the Islamic Republic, from individual freedoms to high unemployment.

30 Steelworkers Arrested in Iran For Demanding Three Months Back Wages

JUNE 14, 2018

More than 60 workers at the Iran National Steel Industrial Group (INSIG) in Ahvaz, Khuzestan Province, have been arrested for demanding their salaries, which have not been paid to them for the last three months, according to an independent Iranian labor organization.

Arab Rights Activist Hatam Morammezi Dead After One Year of Detention in Iran

Hatam Morammezi holding his nephew.

JUNE 6, 2018

Family Threatened to Stay Silent About the Case, Which Marks Sixth Death in Custody in Iran in Last Five Months

After a year in detention in Iran, 20-year-old Arab rights advocate Hatam Morammezi has been pronounced dead to his family in Ahvaz, the capital of Khuzestan Province, his cousin Faisal Morammezi told the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) on June 6, 2018.

Iranian Poet Sentenced and Fined For Posting Photo of Man Injured by Police

Iranian poet and filmmaker Baktash Abtin has been sentenced and fined in Iran for posting a photo to his Instagram account of a man who was assaulted by police.

Posting a photo of a man injured by police to his Instagram account has cost Iranian poet and filmmaker Baktash Abtin three months of community service at the State Welfare Organization of Iran and five million tomans ($1,182 USD).

Telegram Channel Admin Could Get Death Penalty For “Insulting the Prophet”

Weakened by his hunger strike, prisoner of conscience Hamidreza Amini was transferred to a hospital in hand and ankle cuffs but was returned to prison before the treatment was completed.

JUNE 7, 2018

Hamidreza Amini could face the death penalty if he is convicted of “insulting the Prophet” for the content of his Telegram app channel, a source close to the prisoner of conscience told the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) on June 5, 2018.

Want to Choose Your Lawyer? Good Luck in Iran
Only 20 Lawyers to Defend People Accused of Political, Security Crimes in Tehran

Iran's national flags are seen on a square in Tehran February 10, 2012.

 © 2012 Reuters

Iran’s judiciary reportedly created a very short list of lawyers approved to represent people accused of national security crimes – commonly used to prosecute activists – in Tehran’s courts during the investigative stage of the case. Of the 20,000-plus members of Tehran’s Bar association, only 20 lawyers made the list, which, unsurprisingly, excluded women and human rights lawyers.

Ancient Iranian City Angrily Faces Divided Future

May 27, 2018

The ancient Iranian city of Kazeroon has withstood the test of time, but it might not survive a controversial municipal plan to carve it up.

Founded along a Sasanian-era trade route in the 5th century, well before Islam came to Persia, the southwestern city's future is now tied to a controversial proposal that would partition parts of the city and merge them into a new town, cutting Kazeroon off from historic landmarks and redistributing scarce water supplies in the arid area.

The plan, proposed by a local lawmaker and endorsed by Tehran, enraged many of Kazeroon's 140,000 residents, who had staged peaceful protests in recent months to air their frustrations. Last week, that anger boiled over when demonstrations turned violent, deadly, and against the government.

Iranian authorities say at least two protesters have been killed, dozens wounded -- reportedly including police -- and scores arrested since May 16, when clashes broke out between riot police and angry demonstrators.

In an attempt to defuse the tense situation, authorities announced on May 17 they had put the plan on hold, but confrontations between protesters and police have continued as local officials become embroiled in a blame game over responsibly for the unrest.

Amnesty International Report Discloses “Abuse of Women Prisoners” In Iran

May 26, 2018

A statement released by London-based human rights watchdog Amnesty International on Friday May 25 has disclosed serious abuse of female prisoners at a prison in the outskirts of Tehran.

The AI statement says that female prisoners of conscience from Iran’s Gonabadi Dervish religious community are being subjected to “verbal abuse, including sexual slurs, and denied proper medical treatment,” at a prison in Shahr-e Rey.

Almost Half Of Iran’s Wetlands ‘Dried Up’

June 02, 2018

Sixty wetlands in Iran, including nearly 44 percent of the country’s total marshlands, have dried up, according to the deputy head of the Department of Environment (DOE) for wetlands.

“There are some 105 wetlands in Iran, stretching 3 million hectares of land. About 1.3 million hectares of these wetlands are affected by drought, which led to total dryness of some 60 wetlands,” state-run Iran Labor News Agency (ILNA) quoted Masoud Bagherzadeh as saying on June 1.

15 Arrested at Aborted Talks Over Water Dispute in Southwestern Iran

MAY 31, 2018

Fifteen negotiators representing protesting farmers in the southern Iranian province of Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad were arrested on May 29, 2018, as they showed up for talks over a water dispute.

“This morning [May 29] about 200 people gathered in front of the governor’s office in Yasouj to protest the action by the city’s water and sewage authority [to divert water from the river],” Mansour Norouzi, the chairman of the Mehrian Village Council, told the semi-official Iranian Labor News Agency (ILNA).