Outrage After Judicial Parliamentary Committee Rejects Bill to Ban Child Marriages in Iran

DECEMBER 28, 2018

Two years after it was introduced to Iran’s Parliament, the Parliamentary Committee for Judicial and Legal Affairs has rejected a bill to ban marriage for girls under the age of 13.

Civil rights advocates responded to the news by noting that some lawmakers will continue to push the bill forward while many Iranians expressed their outrage on social media.

Tayebeh Siavashi, a Member of Parliament (MP) in the women’s faction, announced the news in a tweet on December 23, 2018, adding that a parliamentary majority had approved the general outline of the proposal in September 2018 after it was first introduced in 2016.

Peaceful Teachers Protesting Heavy Sentence Against Mohammad Habibi Met With Tear Gas, Arrestsتشدید سرکوب معلمان: تایید حکم ۱۰ سال زندان محمد حبیبی، پرتاب گاز اشک‌آور و بازداشت معترضان در اصفهان

DECEMBER 28, 2018

Teachers who were peacefully protesting a fellow colleague’s heavy prison sentence were met with tear gas by anti-riot units who made “several arrests” in the Iranian city of Isfahan on December 27, 2018, a trade unionist told the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI).

On December 24, Iran’s Appeals Court upheld a conviction against Mohammad Habibi, a member of the Iranian Teachers’ Trade Association (ITTA) who in August 2018 had been sentenced by a Revolutionary Court in Tehran to 10.5 years in prison, of which he would have to serve at least 7.5 years.

Elderly Baha’i Man Arrested for Third Time for Peacefully Practicing His Religionتوهین به اعتقادات مذهبی‌ و بازداشت دوباره یک بهایی از سوی ماموران اداره اطلاعات ساری

DECEMBER 26, 2018

“…The agents repeatedly cursed and insulted him and called him a ‘Baha’i dog’”

Formerly imprisoned Baha’i faith member Ali Ahmadi has been arrested for a third time in Iran on the charge of “propaganda against the state,” this time for having a holy book inside his home, a source with knowledge about his case informed the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI).

The latest arrest took place on November 18, 2018, in the city of Sari by the Caspian Sea where the 60-year-old works as a rice trader. He was taken into custody by agents of the Intelligence Ministry and is currently being held in solitary confinement at the Kachouie Detention Center in Sari.

People with Intellectual Disabilities in Iran Lack Crucial Services and Supportافراد دارای معلولیت ذهنی در ایران از خدمات و حمایت های حیاتی برخوردار نیستند

DECEMBER 28, 2018

At least 1.5 million people were living with intellectual disabilities in Iran in 2018 but only 350,000 of them were registered with the State Welfare Organization (SWO) that year, according to figures presented by state officials.

The Iranian government meanwhile failed to provide specific programs to help citizens living with intellectual and psychological disabilities gain independence in their lives or protect them from abuse and violence.

Services provided by the SWO, the country’s main agency tasked with providing services to people with disabilities, instead include offering severely inadequate financial assistance to a limited number of families while focusing on “disability prevention,” which is not in its mandate.

Iran: Juvenile Offender Hamid Ahmadi Maledeh on Death Rowحمید احمدی مالده، کودک-مجرم زندان مرکزی رشت، در صف اعدام

December 22, 2018

Iran Human Rights (IHR); December 20, 2018: Hamid Ahmadi Maledeh, a prisoner who is sentenced to death for an alleged murder at the age of 17, is in danger of execution in the coming months, after having been on death row after 11 years in Rash Central Prison.

According to the IHR sources, Hamid Ahmadi Maledeh was born on December 24, 1990. He reportedly participated in a street fight on March 5, 2008, in which a person was murdered. Hamid was 17 at the time of the incident. Nevertheless, his relatives claim that he was only a mediator and did not commit the crime.

Close sources also emphasized that Hamid was tortured in the first phase of interrogations to confess against himself. 

Iran: Hamid Bagheri Dermani Executed for Economic Corruptionحمیدرضا باقری درمنی، یکی دیگر از متهمان اقتصادی اعدام شد

December 22, 2018

Iran Human Rights (IHR), December 22, 2018: Hamid Bagheri Dermani, a businessman known by the State-run Iranian media as the "Sultan of Bitumen", was executed Saturday morning, December 22, on alleged economic corruption charges.

According to ISNA, Hamid Bagheri Dermani had been charged with bribery and corruption. Refering to the Tehran Revolutionary Court, the report says that Mr. Bagheri Dermani was found, among others, guilty of forging documents to secure state-backed loans for the establishment of front companies which he used to procure more than 300,000 tons of bitumen - a substance used in making asphalt. - One of Iran's most profitable industries.

Hamid Bagheri Dermiani's case was initially processed by the newly established anti-corruption court but later sent to the Revolutionary Court where he was charged with "spreading corruption on earth" and sentenced to death in October 2018.

Bill to Ban Child Marriages in Iran Facing Implacable Opposition by Religious Conservatives

DECEMBER 21, 2018

Legislation Banning Marriages of Girls under the Age of 13 Remains Stalled

A proposed bill seeking to ban child marriage in Iran continues to face stiff opposition amongst conservative lawmakers and religious figures, and remains stalled in parliament.

The so-called “child spouse” bill, introduced into parliament in 2016, proposes an absolute ban on the marriage of girls under age 13 and an absolute ban for the marriage of boys under 16. For the marriage of girls between the ages of 13-16 and for boys between the ages 16-18, the bill would require parental consent and court permission. Marriage for girls over 16 and for boys over 18 would require no court permission.

Currently, girls in Iran can be legally married at age 13 and boys at 15—and even younger—including girls as young as nine lunar years of age—with a father’s and judge’s consent.

Law Student Begins Six-Month Prison Term for Social Media Posts Critical of State Policyدانشجوی حقوق قانونی شروع به شش ماه زندان برای پست های رسانه های اجتماعی انتقاد از سیاست های دولت

DECEMBER 21, 2018

Amir Chamani Taken to Tabriz Prison, Lawyer Not Notified

In a continuing assault on freedom of speech—particularly the peaceful expression of views critical of state policy—the law student and civil rights activist Amir Chamani was taken from his place of work and transferred to Tabriz Central Prison in northwest Iran on December 17, 2018, after the Appeals Court upheld his six-month prison sentence for posts on social media about political and economic issues, his lawyer told the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI).

“Yes, it’s true he has been taken into custody,” attorney Abbas Jamali said on December 19. “My client was detained without my knowledge and taken to Tabriz prison in connection with the six-month sentence he received following his arrest in late May 2018. He was also charged with ‘insulting the Supreme Leader,’ for which he was fortunately not found guilty, but the Appeals Court upheld the sentence [for ‘propaganda against the state’] despite our objection.”

Iran Executions: Prisoner Hanged at Bandar Abbas Prisonانتقال یک زندانی با جرائم مربوط به مواد مخدر جهت اجرای اعدام

December 8, 2018

Iran Human Rights (IHR); December 8, 2018: A prisoner was hanged at Bandar Abbas Central Prison on murder charges last Tuesday.

According to the IHR sources, Jamshid Agha-Rahimi was hanged on the morning of December 4, 2018, at Bandar Abbas Central Prison.

“Jamshid was from Hajiabad city and was imprisoned there. He was transferred to Bandar Abbas Prison 15 days ago for the execution. He killed a person who had abused his sister four years ago,” the source said, “He could not win the consent of the victim’s family and was executed.”

According to the Iranian Islamic Penal Code (IPC) murder is punishable by qisas which means “retribution in kind” or retaliation. In this way, the State effectively puts the responsibility of the death sentence for murder on the shoulders of the victim’s family. In many cases, the victim's family are encouraged to put the rope is around the prisoner's neck and even carry out the actual execution by pulling off the chair the prisoner is standing on.

The Iranian media outlets have not published news related to the aforementioned execution so far.

According to Iran Human Rights annual report on the death penalty, 240 of the 517 execution sentences in 2017 were implemented due to murder charges. There is a lack of a classification of murder by degree in Iran which results in issuing a death sentence for any kind of murder regardless of intensity and intent.

Forgiveness: Iranian Juvenile Offender Milad Azimi Saved from Executionمیلاد عظیمی با یاری مردم و خیران از اعدام نجات یافت

December 7, 2018

Iran Human Rights (December 7, 2018): Milad Azimi, a juvenile offender who allegedly committed a murder at the age of 17, was forgiven by the plaintiffs on Thursday, December 6, 2018.

Milad's death sentence was upheld by the Iranian Supreme Court a few months ago. The plaintiff had set a diyeh (blood-money) of 500 million Toman (approximately 50.000 USD) with the deadline of December 4. Milad's family was not able to pay that amount of money.

However, the local human rights defenders and civil society activists could motivate righteous people to help to collect money.

Iranian Authorities’ Refuse to Allow Christian Convert Ebrahim Firoozi to See Dying Motherدادگاه با ملاقات و خداحافظی زندانی عقیدتی با مادرش موافقت نکرد

DECEMBER 7, 2018

While battling breast cancer for the past year, Kobra Kamrani’s only wish was to see her son Ebrahim Firoozi, a Christian convert who was imprisoned in Iran for alleged missionary activities.

She was too ill to make the trip to the prison but the authorities refused to grant Firoozi temporary leave for a short visit, leaving his mother to die on December 3, 2018, without being able to say goodbye, a source close to the family told the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI).

Since 2014, Firoozi has been serving a five-year prison sentence for the charge of “creating a group with the intention of disturbing national security” for allegedly engaging in missionary activities.

When he was first arrested in January 2010, interrogators offered Firoozi freedom if he declared himself a Muslim. He refused and was convicted of “propaganda against the state” for converting to Christianity and allegedly promoting the faith and sentenced to five months in prison with an additional five-month suspended prison sentence.

Firoozi was freed on June 8, 2011, but was arrested again in March 2012 for allegedly “attempting to create a website teaching about Christianity” and was again charged with “propaganda against the state.”

For this act, he was sentenced to one year in prison and two years in exile by Judge Hassan Babaee of the Revolutionary Court in Robat Karim, 16 miles southwest of Tehran. The decision was upheld on appeal.

Firoozi’s third arrest took place on September 16, 2014.

During interrogations in Evin Prison’s Ward 240, Firoozi was put under intense pressure to issue a false confession in return for freedom but refused, according to an informed source.

Despite President Hassan Rouhani’s pledges during his election campaign in 2013 that “all ethnicities, all religions, even religious minorities, must feel justice,” the targeting of Christian converts has continued unabated under his administration.

Iran must free Farhad Meysami, a nonviolent fighter for human rightsایران باید فرهاد میثامی، جنگجوی خشونتطلبانه برای حقوق بشر را آزاد کند

By Abbas Milani, Larry Diamond, Francis Fukuyama and Michael McFaul

December 5, 2018

Abbas Milani is a research fellow and co-director of the Iran Democracy Project at the Hoover Institution, and the Hamid and Christina Moghadam Director of Iranian Studies at Stanford University. Larry Diamond is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI) at Stanford University. Michael A. McFaul is also senior fellow at the Hoover Institution as well as director and senior fellow at FSI. Francis Fukuyama is a senior fellow and the Mosbacher Director of FSI’s Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law.

Iran: Juvenile Offender Seyyed-Danial ZeinolAbedin Sentenced to Deathسیددانیال زین‌العابدین کودک-مجرمی در صف اعدام؛ یکی از محکومان پرونده قتل صادق برمکی

December 2, 2018

Iran Human Rights (December 1, 2018): Seyed Danial ZeinolAbedini is a juvenile offender whose death sentence has been upheld by the Supreme Court and is scheduled for execution. Iran Human Rights (IHR) urges the Iranian authorities to stop juvenile executions and calls on the international community to pay urgent attention to Seyyed-Danidal's case.

According to the IHR sources, Seyyed-Danial Zeinolabedin was born on August 9, 2000. He committed a murder on September 22, 2017. This means he is sentenced to death for a crime committed under the age of 18.

Under Article 91 of the Islamic Penal Code which was added to the law 5 years ago, judges are allowed to issue alternative verdicts for the minors. The juvenile offenders whom a judge considers not mature enough to realize the nature of the crime committed can face prison terms.

Seyyed-Danial’s lawyer, Asoo Arya, told IHR, “My client is underage. According to Article 91 of Iran’s Islamic Penal Code, execution of people under 18 years old is not allowed unless the court recognizes the defendant as a mature person by sending him/her to forensics. My client has not been sent to forensics.”

However, according to Article 91 of Iran's revised Islamic Penal Code, it is up to the presiding judge's discretion to deem the juvenile mature enough to understand the nature of the offense:  "In the cases of offenses punishable by hadd or qisas, if mature people under eighteen years do not realize the nature of the crime committed or its prohibition, or if there is uncertainty about their full mental development, according to their age, they shall be sentenced to the punishments prescribed in this chapter." Otherwise, the Islamic Penal Code puts the age of criminal responsibility for males at 15 and 9 for females.

However, the article could neither stop nor even decrease the execution of juvenile offenders. From the application of article 91 in 2013 to the end of 2017, at least 35 juvenile offenders have been hanged in Iranian prisons.

Rouhani Cabinet’s Refusal to Allocate Funding for Disabilities Law Will Harm Millionsخودداری دولت روحانی از اختصاص بودجه به قانون حمایت از معلولان، زندگی میلیون‌ها نفر را مشکل خواهد کرد

DECEMBER 1, 2018

Law for the Protection of the Rights of Disabled Persons Requires Designated Funding

Current Budgetary Allocations Will Not Allow Implementation of Many Measures

December 1, 2018–Iran should fulfill its responsibility to fully implement its Law for the Protection of the Rights of Disabled Persons by specifically allocating the funds that are needed to enforce all its measures, the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) said in a statement today marking the International Day of Persons with Disabilities and the 10th anniversary of Iran’s ratification of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD).

The budget bill for the Iranian year ending in March 2020 is currently being discussed in the cabinet, and according to NGOs in Iran there has so far been no designated funds specifically allocated to implement the law. The vast majority of the law’s provisions cannot be implemented without these funds, and thus CHRI urges the authorities to make the budgetary allocations that the law in fact requires.

“The Iranian government is demonstrating indefensible indifference toward the lives of millions of human beings with disabilities. It must accept that passing laws and making speeches cannot replace action,” said Hadi Ghaemi, executive director of CHRI.

Iran: Prisoner Hanged Convicted of Murdering Prominent Clericحسین اسماعیل‌پور که یک روحانی سرشناس را در ارتباط با تجاوز به قتل رسانده بود اعدام شد/ ویدئو

December 1, 2018

Iran Human Rights (IHR); December 1, 2018: a prisoner convicted of murdering a prominent cleric who had allegedly sexually abused him when he was a minor, was hanged this morning at Rasht Central Prison in northern Iran. IHR had previously reported about his case and scheduled execution.

According to the IHR sources, Hossein Esmailpour was a student at a religious school. He was convicted of murdering Fakhri Langaroudi with the complicity of two of his friends on September 15, 2014. The clergyman, who had a prominent position at the religious school, had allegedly sexually abused Hossein over a period of several years since Hossein was 14 years old.

Hossein Esmailpour had previously told IHR, “One of the defendants who were charged with complicity to murder was released and the other one is sentenced to life imprisonment.”

Fakhri Langaroudi, the clergyman, was an advisor in 2013 elections for Mohsen Rezaei (former Commander in Chief of IRGC) campaign, and the consultant of the secretary of the Expediency Discernment Council in Gilan province
the whole judicial process leading to Hussein’s death sentence lasted four months, which is very short to deal with such a complicated case. However, some believe that the influence of the clergyman’s family was the reason for an unfair trial.

Hossein’s father had previously told IHR, “We did not have a chance to prove us in the court, because the victim was a clergyman and he had an influential family. Everything was for them and the court did not listen to us… Finally, the judge issued the death sentence in three or four months and then the Supreme Court upheld the verdict.”

Iran: Public Execution of a Person with Mental Illnessاعدام یک بیمار اعصاب و روان در ملأ عام در شهر تفت

November 30, 2018

Iran Human Rights (IHR); November 30, 2018: A prisoner was hanged in public at Iranian city of Taft (Central Iran) on Thursday, November 29. The man was suffering from mental disability and had previously been hospitalized in a Psychiatric hospital, according to the Iranian media reports.

According to Iranian media, the man whose first name identified as Kamran, was suffering from mental disability and was hospitalized in a Psychiatric hospital before committing a murder. Kamran was 19 when he murdered a 36 old woman; and told the prosecutors that he loved the victim. “I expressed my love to her and she refused. I decided to take revenge,” the prisoner had said in his confessions.

According to the Yazd Province Judiciary Courthouse’s Public Relations department, Kamran was hanged in public in Taft city, on the morning of Thursday, November 29.

UN human rights experts, including the former Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Iran, had previously drawn particular attention to continued reports of public executions. “a dehumanizing effect on both the victim and those who witness the execution” and ultimately reinforced the “already cruel, inhuman and degrading nature of the death penalty,” UN experts said.

Iran Human Rights (IHR) warns against the new wave of executions in Iran and urges the UN, EU, and countries with diplomatic relations with Iran to react immediately and accordingly.

“We demand the halt of all executions, especially public executions which are inhumane and disdainful, and increase the level of violence in society, ”IHR spokesperson and director, Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, emphasized, “At the first anniversary of the nationwide protests in Iran, we are concerned that the Iranian authorities will use more executions and terror to avoid new protests.”

IHR has previously reported about other cases where people with mental illness have been executed in Iran.