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.