Iran Executions: Man Hanged at Ahvaz Prison

JANUARY 23, 2019

Iran Human Rights (IHR); January 23, 2018: A prisoner was executed at Sepidar Prison in the Iranian southern city of Ahvaz (Ahwaz).

According to IHR sources, on the morning of Tuesday, January 22, 2019, a man identified as Rahman Jasemi Zargani was executed at Sepidar (also known as Qods) prison in Ahvaz.

Rahman was married with two children. He was arrested for murdering one of his relatives 9 years ago.

Iran Sentences Men Who Supported Women’s Protests Against Compulsory Hijab to Six Years Prison

JANUARY 22, 2019

Reza Khandan and Farhad Meysami Denied Right to a Public Trial

January 22, 2019 – Reza Khandan and Farhad Meysami have both been sentenced to six years imprisonment in Iran and banned from leaving the country or engaging in online activities for two years for peacefully protesting the country’s compulsory hijab law.

“Iran wants to silence these men by jailing them for standing by women who want the hijab to be a choice, not a requirement,” said Hadi Ghaemi, the executive director of the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI).

“The only crime they committed is peacefully exercising their rights of freedom of speech and expression,” said Ghaemi. “Iran’s judiciary should heed their calls for a fair and public trial and release them.”

Iran is Using False “Confessions” to Manufacture Cases Against Detained Conservationists

JANUARY 24, 2019

One Dead, Eight Others At Grave Risk for Harm

Detainees, Jailed for 12 Months, Denied Counsel, Could Face Death Penalty

January 24, 2019 – Some of the conservationists who have been imprisoned incommunicado in Iran for the past year have been forced to confess under the threat of death, the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) has learned.

New details about the prolonged detentions of Houman Jowkar, Taher Ghadirian, Morad Tahbaz, Sepideh Kashani, Niloufar Bayani, Amir Hossein Khaleghi, Sam Rajabi and Abdolreza Kouhpayeh strongly indicate that Iran’s judicial officials have been working closely with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ (IRGC’s) Intelligence Organization to build cases against them based on false confessions obtained under extreme duress.

Journalist to Serve Five Years in Prison for Uncovering Corruption in Tehran Municipality

JANUARY 25, 2019

Yashar Soltani’s Investigate Expose Implicated City Officials and MPs

Journalist Yashar Soltani has been sentenced to five years in prison for exposing extensive corruption within the Tehran municipality, his lawyer announced January 23, 2019.

“Let’s turn this unjust verdict into an opportunity to fight corruption,” Soltani tweeted the day of the announcement. “We will not hand over Iran to the corrupt.”

Branch 15 of the Revolutionary Court in Tehran also banned Soltani, the editor-in-chief of the independent Memari News, from leaving Iran or participating in political and media activities for two years, said attorney Sadegh Kashani.

Satirist Keyomars Marzban to Be Tried in Iran Under Hardline Judge Salavati

JANUARY 18, 2019

Iranian satirist Keyomars Marzban, who has been detained in Iran since August 2018, is due to face trial for the charges of “propaganda against the state” and “insulting the sacred” at Branch 15 of the Revolutionary Court in Tehran presided by Judge Abolqasem Salavati.

Salavati is notorious in Iran for issuing harsh sentences in politically sensitive cases in Iran. In interviews with the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI), several Iranian human rights lawyers criticized Salavati for ignoring arguments by the defense in court and bowing to the demands of the prosecution, especially in cases in which the arresting authority was the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ (IRGC’s) Intelligence Organization.

Four Independent News Journalists Arrested in Iran in Less Than a Month

JANUARY 19, 2019

Former political prisoner Ali (Amir) Amirgholi has become the fourth journalist working for the Gamindependent online news outlet to be arrested in Iran in recent weeks.

A source with knowledge of his case told the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) on January 16, 2019, that someone posing as Amirgholi had contacted his father after Amirgholi was detained.

“We had not heard from him in two days,” said the source who requested anonymity for security reasons. “We went to his house in Babolsar [northern Iran] but he wasn’t there.”

The source said that after Amirgholi was arrested, someone sent messages from his WhatsApp account to his father claiming that he was at his friend’s house in the city of Lahijan and that he was okay.

Defense Lawyer Mostafa Tork Hamedani Sentenced to Six Months Imprisonment in Iran

JANUARY 19, 2019

Human rights attorney Mostafa Tork Hamedani has been sentenced to six months imprisonment in Iran for allegedly slandering a former prosecutor, his lawyer Peyman Haj Mahmoud Attar announced on January 15, 2019.

Hamedani is among a group of defense attorneys currently being targeted by the country’s security establishment for taking on politically sensitive cases, including those involving peaceful activists and dissidents.

Hamedani’s attorney told the state-funded Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA) that the preliminary sentence against his client was 10 months in prison and 40 lashes but on appeal was reduced by four months with the flogging sentence suspended for one year.

Sham Investigation of Labor Activist’s Alleged Torture Lacks Impartiality, Ignores Witnesses

JANUARY 17, 2019

Iran Must Re-Open an Independent and Impartial Investigation into Labor Activist’s Abuse

Multiple Cases of Alleged Torture Must Be Thoroughly Investigated

January 17, 2018—After a brief and deeply flawed investigation lacking any semblance of impartiality, the authorities in Iran have denied that labor activist Esmail Bakhshi was tortured in an Intelligence Ministry detention center in Ahvaz, Khuzestan Province in Iran.

Relying on statements by officials who were themselves possibly implicated and ignoring critical evidence by credible witnesses, officials dismissed the torture allegations and have engaged in a campaign of smears and intimidation aimed at silencing and discrediting the labor activist.

The Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) calls on the authorities in Iran to:

Iran: 17 Men Hanged in One Prison in One Weekاعدام ۱۷ زندانی در طی یک هفته در زندان رجایی شهر کرج

JANUARY 13, 2019

Iran Human Rights (IHR); January 13, 2019: According to IHR sources inside Iran, 17 prisoners have been hanged for murder charges between January 2. And 9. At the Rajai Shahr prison of Karaj (West of Tehran).

According to the IHR sources, on the morning of Wednesday, January 9, 2019, at least 12 prisoners were executed at Karaj city’s Rajai Shahr prison for murder charges. Three of the prisoners were identified as “Mohsen Rezaei" from ward 1, "Reza Farmanjou" from ward 6, and "Baratali Rahimi" from ward 10 of the prison.”

Mohsen Rezaei was sentenced to death for killing his wife. According to a close friend of Mohsen Rezaei, he had always emphasized that he was innocent and his confessions were extracted after one year of torture.

Mother of Imprisoned Activist Describes Beatings and Threats by Interrogators to Kill Family

JANUARY 9, 2019

In the wake of revelations of the torture of labor activist Esmail Bakhshi, others have stepped forward to join the public outcry over abuses committed against detainees in Iran by detailing their own experiences of torture in Iranian prisons. The mother of imprisoned civil rights activist Atena Daemi recently spoke to Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) about the abuse directed against her daughter.

“I cried when I saw Mr. Bakhshi talking about his torture. It made me angry,” Masoumeh Nemati toldCHRI on January 7. “I thought I should also write about the hell we have gone through. I should make the people aware that this is not just Mr. Bakhshi’s story. It’s my daughter’s story, too.”

Nasrin Sotoudeh and Baha’i Political Prisoner Refuse Phone Calls in Solidarity with Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe

JANUARY 11, 2019

Two political prisoners held in the same ward as Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe in Iran’s Evin Prison have given up their right to phone calls until the authorities lift newly imposed restrictions targeting the Iranian UK dual national as well her fellow inmates in the Women’s Ward.

Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s weekly phone calls with her husband were canceled and her food rations decreased after she announced she would be going on hunger strike for access to medical treatment for lumps in her breast. This prompted prominent human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh and Baha’i university educator Azita Rafizadeh to give up their own phone calls in solidarity with Zaghari-Ratcliffe.

Iran launched Christmas crackdown on persecuted Christian minority

January 12, 2019

The Islamic Republic of Iran unleashed yet another crackdown on the country’s struggling Christian minority before and after Christmas, prompting international calls for help - and for much tougher action against the repressive regime.

The Iranian group Alliance for Rights of All Minorities reported on December 30 that “nine Christians were arrested in Karaj, Iran on alleged charges of affiliation with Christian Zionists and recruitment of Muslims to home churches. The arrests are also based on fears that this group intends to harm Iran and insult Iran.”

Judicial Official Announces Order to Block Instagram Less Than a Year After Banning Telegram Messaging Appرسمی دادگستری اعلام کرد که اینستاگرام را کمتر از یک سال پس از ممنوعیت پیام تلگراف ممنوع کرده است

JANUARY 4, 2019

Judicial Order Tied to Previously Undeclared Policy of App Usage Level

Eight months after Iran blocked the country’s most widely used messaging app, Telegram, a deputy prosecutor has announced a judicial order to also filter Instagram due to what he described as over-usage of the social media app.

Instagram had not been blocked as of January 4, 2018, and it is unknown when the order will go into effect.

While Twitter and Facebook were blocked in 2009 and Telegram in 2018, Instagram remained accessible throughout the country without the use of censorship circumvention tools (such as virtual private networks), resulting in millions of Iranians, including state officials, businesses and celebrities relying on the app to reach their followers.

Stricken With Chicken Pox, Political Prisoner Alireza Tavakoli Hunger Strikes for Medical Treatment

JANUARY 4, 2019

Prisoner of conscience Alireza Tavakoli, currently imprisoned in Tehran’s Evin Prison for his social media postings, is hunger striking to be “transferred and treated at a medical center for chickenpox,” a source with knowledge of the case told the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI).

“They say he has caught chickenpox but he has been put in isolation without proper treatment in an area of the clinic that has no heating,” said the source who requested anonymity to protect their personal security.

“They are refusing to take him to a hospital for treatment,” added the source. “They have only separated him from the rest of the prisoners. He must have contracted the disease from an infected area inside the prison. There should be an investigation.”

Labor Activist Smaeil Bakhshi Tortured by Agents of Rouhani’s Intelligence Ministryاسماعیل باخشی فعال کارگری توسط نمایندگان وزارت اطلاعات روحانی مورد شکنجه قرار گرفته است

JANUARY 4, 2019

Held Without Access to Lawyer, Bakhshi Beaten During 25-Day Detention

January 4, 2018—The beating and torture of the labor activist Smaeil Bakhshi (also spelled Esmail Bakhshi), while he was in detention by agents of Iran’s Intelligence Ministry, is a blatant violation of international and domestic Iranian law, and the authorities in Iran should immediately investigate and prosecute any officials involved, the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) said in a statement today.

CHRI also calls on the UN and the international community to forcefully communicate to the authorities in Iran that the violent and unlawful abuse of detainees is unacceptable.

Bakhshi, a representative of protesting Haft Tappeh sugarcane workers in Shush, southwest Iran, revealed in a letter posted on Instagram on January 4, 2019, that he was severely beaten during his 25 days in detention and left with serious and lasting physical injuries.

Iran: 12 Prisoners Executed For Drug Charges - Detailsگزارش تکمیلی از اعدام ۱۲ زندانی مواد مخدر در ماه گذشته در کرمان

January 4, 2019

Iran Human Rights (IHR); January 4, 2018: Last month IHR and several other rights groups and news websites received reports about the execution of 12 imprisoned drug offenders on December 6, in the Central Prison of Kerman, South-Eastern Iran. IHR has now confirmed the reports through several independent sources.  This is the highest number of drug-related executions in one day since the new amendments to the Anti-Narcotics Law were enforced in November 2017.
 

According to the IHR sources, on the morning of December 6, 2018, at least 12 prisoners were hanged at Kerman prison, all of whom had been sentenced to death for drug-related charges.

Three of the prisoners were identified as Ali Deyhim (or Deyhi), Majid Shiki and Reza Ouhadi, charged with possession of 700 Kg opium, 1700 Kg opium, and 14 Kg Heroin respectively. Local sources identified two other men as Jalil, son of Khodabakhs and Yousef, son of Jalaloddin.