Top Iranian human rights lawyer barred for three years – Award-winning Iranian human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh told AFP Sunday that she has been barred from practising for three years and will hold a protest against the decision this week.
Sotoudeh was released from jail last year when halfway through a six-year sentence for “actions against national security and committing propaganda against the regime”.
Top Iranian human rights lawyer barred for three years
She said the ban was a threat to the legal profession but she would not appeal. Instead, she will conduct a sit-down protest outside the Iran Bar Association’s headquarters in Tehran, starting Tuesday.
“The tribunal made this illegal decision at the demand of a court based at Evin Prison,” the Tehran jail where she served her sentence, Sotoudeh said by telephone.
“This ruling opens the way for the disqualification of other lawyers in the future,” she added.
Sotoudeh was released in September 2013 shortly before Iran’s then newly elected President Hassan Rouhani attended the UN General Assembly in New York.
A court last month authorised Sotoudeh — who won the European parliament’s prestigious Sakharov rights prize in 2012 — to resume her practice.
She has defended journalists and rights activists including Nobel Peace laureate Shirin Ebad. When in jail she staged two hunger strikes, in protest at the conditions at Evin and on a ban against seeing her son and daughter.
Hailing from a religious middle class family, Sotoudeh was among the few Iranian lawyers to take on high-profile rights and political cases, including juveniles facing the death penalty, before her arrest in 2010.
At the time of her release last year Iranian media reported that around a dozen political prisoners rounded up for involvement in 2009 anti-government protests had also been freed.
Among them were ex-deputy foreign minister Mohsen Aminzadeh, reformist politician Feyzollah Arabsorkhi and journalist Mahsa Amirabadi.
They were among thousands jailed after the disputed re-election of president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad led to a deadly regime crackdown.
The election of Rouhani last summer came after he pledged to improve civil rights in Iran.
In New York at this year’s opening of the UN General Assembly the reform-minded leader denied that human rights were worsening in Iran and said he remained committed to his pledges.
Three US citizens are currently being held in Iran, a former Marine arrested three years ago accused of espionage, a Christian pastor and Jason Rezaian, the Washington Post’s Tehran correspondent.
In June, a British-Iranian woman, Goncheh Ghavami, 25, was also arrested when she went to watch a men’s volleyball game. She went on trial last week and a ruling is expected within days.
IRGC Commander Rejects Allegations about Deployment of IRGC Forces in Syria, Lebanon – Senior Islamic Revolution Guards Corps commanders said the IRGC has no combat troops outside Iran, specially in Syria and Lebanon.
“The IRGC Ground Force is active in Southeastern, Northwestern and Western Iran, but as other commanders have announced, the IRGC plays an advisory role in these countries,” Lieutenant Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps Ground Force Brigadier General Abdollah Araqi told reporters in Tehran on Saturday.
IRGC Commander Rejects Allegations about Deployment of IRGC Forces in Syria, Lebanon
Elaborating on the IRGC’s presence in the Southeastern parts of the country, he said thanks to the security measures of the IRGC, police, intelligence and political forces, terrorist groups who used to conduct their operations from inside the Southeastern province of Sistan and Balouchestan are now headquartered across the border.
Araqi referred to the recent terrorist attack in Saravan, a border town near Pakistan, for which Islamabad was held accountable due to its lax control over the borders with Iran, and said the IRGC Ground Force has provided the foreign and interior ministries with substantiating proof and evidence on terrorists’ infiltration from Pakistan.
Four Iranian police officers, including a conscript, were killed in two terrorist attacks on a border post in the Southeastern province of Sistan and Balouchestan earlier this month.
The tragic event took place in the vicinity of the city of Saravan near the border with Pakistan.
Last Saturday, the Iranian interior ministry held Islamabad accountable for the terrorist attacks that claimed the lives of several policemen in Southeastern Iran recently.
“We don’t expect the Pakistani government (to allow) the terrorist operations will be held against Iran from the Pakistani soil,” Interior Ministry Spokesman Hossein Ali Amiri told reporters in Tehran.
He called on the Iranian foreign ministry to take more active measures in contacts with Islamabad to make the Muslim neighboring state in order not to allow their country become a launchpad for terrorist operations against Iran.
Yet, the spokesman said the terrorist attacks did not have any military value as they were only some hit-and-run operations by the terrorists who sneak into Iran from a neighboring state, carry out terrorist operations and then escape to the same country.
Amiri called for Pakistan’s serious cooperation in preventing terrorists’ infiltration into the Iranian soil, and said, “The Pakistani government should be held accountable for the terrorist operations.”
In response, the Pakistani officials asked Iran to provide Islamabad with documents showing that the terrorists had sneaked into Iran through Pakistan’s border.
Iran cleric: Riyadh to pay heavy price if Sheikh Nimr executed – A senior Iranian cleric has warned that the Al Saud regime will pay a “heavy price” should it execute the death sentence recently handed down to prominent Saudi Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr.
Addressing worshippers at the weekly Friday Prayers in the Iranian capital, Tehran, Ayatollah Seyyed Ahmad Khatami described the death penalty slapped on Nimr as “cruel” and said “tough repercussions” await Saudi Arabia if the cleric is put to death, Press TV reported.
Iran cleric: Riyadh to pay heavy price if Sheikh Nimr executed
“The execution of this cleric will have tough consequences and you (Saudi Arabia) will pay a heavy price,” warned the top Iranian religious figure.
On Wednesday, Nimr was sentenced to death at the Specialized Criminal Court in the Saudi capital, Riyadh. In reaction to the sentence, people took to streets in the city of Qatif in Eastern Province to condemn the move.
The senior Saudi Shia cleric, who was attacked and arrested in July 2012, is accused of delivering anti-regime speeches and defending political prisoners.
Ayatollah Khatami further slammed human rights bodies for remaining tight-lipped in the face of Nimr’s death verdict, saying the Saudi cleric was sentenced to death for advocating the rights of Shia Muslims in the kingdom.
“Why the human rights officials, who criticize death sentences for [convicted] murderers in the Islamic Republic’s establishment, have not voiced protest against this verdict? Is it the true meaning of the human rights they are pursuing?” asked the Iranian cleric.
On Thursday, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Arab and African Affairs Hossein Amir-Abdollahian also slammed the death verdict, calling on Riyadh to overturn the ruling and not fuel tensions in the Muslim world any further.
Amnesty International has described the death sentence as “appalling,” saying the verdict should be quashed.
The Al Saud regime has come under fire from international human rights organizations, which have criticized it for failing to address the rights situation in the kingdom. Critics say the monarchy shows zero-tolerance toward dissent.
A paramilitary soldier killed, three injured in Iranian firing – A paramilitary soldier killed and three were critically wounded in ‘unprovoked firing’ by Iranian border guards in an area of Balochistan that shares border with Iran’s Sistan-o-Balouchestan province, the Frontier Corps said in a statement on Friday. Conversely, the Iranian border guards claimed that they have killed ‘several rebels’ in a clash on Pak-Iran border that also left two senior officials dead.
“An FC Subedar embraced martyrdom and three other personnel were wounded in [the Iranian forces’ firing],” a spokesperson for the Frontier Corps said in a statement Friday evening. “The FC personnel were chasing miscreants when they came under attack from Iranian forces. It was a targeted attack on Pakistani forces,” he added. One FC vehicle was also destroyed in the Iranian firing.
A paramilitary soldier killed, three injured in Iranian firing
The firing in Mand tehsil continued for six hours – but Pakistani forces did not retaliate. “It is a clear violation of our border and international law. It is also against a Pak-Iran border agreement,” the spokesperson said. “The firing started late Thursday night and continued till Friday [morning],” he added.
Meanwhile, the commander of Sistan-o-Balouchestan Border Patrols said on Friday that two provincial border guards – 2nd Brigadier Javad Baqeri and 2nd Lieutenant Reza Barani – were killed in an armed clash with hooligans, Iran’s Fars news agency reported Thursday night. “Several rebels were also killed in the clash.”
Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) Brigadier General Roham-Bakhsh Habibi said the Zahedan Border Guards Brigades who had gained information on the movement of the armed hooligans at the Zero Point of Iran-Pakistan border and their intention to enter the Iranian territory reacted promptly to their illegal entry attempt.
“That brigade managed to halt the procession of the armed bandits in a highly skilled operation,” said General Habibi, adding that in the course of the ensuing clash a number of the bandits were killed and one of their vehicles and a noticeable amount of arms and munitions were confiscated.
However, Pakistani security forces said that Iranian border guards intruded deep into Pakistani territory from Zero Point and raided the house of a Pakistani national, who is said to be a relative of a commander of Iran’s Basij force, a paramilitary volunteer militia, in the Lashkar-e-Ahb area of Naukundi in Chagai district.
“The house belongs to Ghuas Baksh Nautezai, who is close relative of Iranian Basij Commander Majeed Nautezai. The things the Iranian border guards had confiscated were sent by Majeed Nautezai to Ghuas Baksh Nautezai,” the paramilitary FC said.
FC Inspector General Maj Gen Ejaz Shahid warned that the Pakistani forces would retaliate against any such incursion in the future. “Pakistani forces will respond to Iranian forces in the future, if they carry out any attack on Pakistani territory,” he added.
The developments came a day after Deputy Commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Brigadier General Hossein Salami told reporters in Tehran that “terrorists, wherever they may be, even on the soil of neighbouring countries, we will find them, and if they do not give up acts of terrorism, we will deal with them without reservation.”
Foreign Office spokesperson Tasnim Aslam, however, sought to downplay the warning, saying that Pakistan and Iran have a mechanism such as a border management committee to deal with the threat of terrorism. “We believe that if Iran has evidence that elements from Pakistan are involved in activities against Iran, they should share it with us.”
She pointed out that according to Pakistani authorities the recent violent incidents were perpetrated inside Iranian territory by Iranians and that was corroborated by their own accounts.
“It is not helpful to externalise problems. We need to focus on eliminating terrorism from our countries. We have mechanisms which can investigate such events as was done in the past when the Iranian guards were kidnapped and released inside Iran,” she emphasised. The spokesperson recalled that last time allegations levelled against Pakistan in the kidnapping of Iranian guards were proven wrong.
Report Ties Parchin Blast to Iran’s Nuclear Program – The massive explosion at Iran’s top-secret Parchin nuclear facility last Monday remains shrouded in mystery, but new details revealed in an in-depthChannel 10 report by investigative reporter Ronen Solomon who provided the first satellite photos of the site to Israel Defense indicate the blast was in fact a chemical explosion, and may shed light on Iran’s nuclear program.
Iran’s Defense Industries Organization (DIO) admitted the blast occurred – after Iran initially denied it – saying it was caused as ammunition was being unloaded at the secret military base suspected of being used to test nuclear detonation devices.
Report Ties Parchin Blast to Iran’s Nuclear Program
Despite the claims of an accident, chairman of Iran’s national security councilMohammed Saleh has summoned security sources to clarify the cause of the explosion which reportedly killed a “nuclear expert,” confirming suspicions it was not a simple accident.
The Iranian state-run Fars News Agency on Monday in follow-up reports about the supposed ammunition explosion admitted it happened due to a “private company” that was given a tender to manage the transportation following government privatization.
Channel 10 reports that the inquiry apparently is focused on a private transportation company “Hamana,” which roughly four years ago was privatized and given given offices adjacent to the Parchin base entrance, where it is authorized to transport dangerous materials in and out of the base.
The public relations picture of Hamana features an image of a nuclear explosion, hinting in a not-so-subtle manner that the company may also be involved in transporting radioactive materials as part of Iran’s secretive nuclear program.
Suspicions that the blast was an act of sabotage by a foreign nation were strengthened by the reports, given that a cyber attack would be possible on Hamana’s trucks.
Hamana reportedly owns five trucks allowed to enter Parchin, which are equipped with GPS and AVL (Automatic Vehicle Location) systems. The trucks’ movements are supervised online, in a system that allows distress signals to be sent out – and even allows remote control over the truck’s engine.
Chemical, not ammunition explosion?
Satellite images from before and after the blast cut through Iran’s initial denials and proved the explosion, showing extensive damage to several buildings and more than one which appears to have completely disappeared.
Analyzing the images, Channel 10 reports that the area most heavily hit by explosion damage in the base is a site run by Parchin Chemical Industries (PCI), which is managed by DIO and is subject to UN and US sanctions for producing ammunition and solid propellants for ballistic missile fuel.
In fact, the report exposes that four storage buildings in the base were completely wiped out by the blast, and appear to be part of PCI’s production and storage workshop for ballistic rocket fuel. It added the building had numerous air vents as characteristic of buildings containing dangerous chemicals such as rocket fuels.
A large cement structure adjacent to the center of the blast was left unscathed according to the report, indicating that the explosion was not caused by an accident with explosive ammunition as claimed – which would have caused secondary damage further away – but rather was a chemical explosion.
It added that the explosive ammunition on the base appears to be stored in cement reinforced bunkers on the eastern side of the facility, not the area where the blast was centered.
It is possible that the chemical storage sites destroyed in the blast also contained radioactive materials left over from the fuse tests conducted secretly at the base as part of a nuclear weapons program – Iran has already admitted to testing exploding bridge wire nuclear detonation devices at Parchin.
If so, the report adds that sensors placed by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) or intelligence services should be able to locate radioactive particulates at the site due to the blast, and thereby obtain concrete evidence of nuclear weapon tests at the facility.
On Tuesday the eighth round of Iranian nuclear talks began in Vienna, ahead of a November 24 deadline.
A senior diplomatic source in Jerusalem on Monday warned US President Barack Obama is liable to extend the deadline again, and more troubling – he may be holding secret talks with Iran again and making agreements against Israeli interests. Iran has repeatedly threatened to annihilate Israel.
Indeed, Obama was revealed last November to have been holding secret talks with Iran for over half a year which led to a temporary agreement, and likewise reportedly had been easing sanctions on Iran for five months ahead of the deal.
IRGC cooperate with over 5,000 private contractors – Giant Iranian engineering company Khatam al-Anbia Construction Base Headquarters is co-operating with over 5,000 private contractors, the base commander Brigadier General Ebadollah Abdollahi said.
He added that the company employs over 135,000 people, Iran’s Fars news agency reported Oct. 12.
IRGC cooperate with over 5,000 private contractors
Khatam al-Anbia Construction Base Headquarters is controlled by the Islamic Revolution’s Guards Corps (IRGC).
Established during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war, the company is one of the Iran’s largest contractors in industrial and development projects.
After Mahmoud Ahmadinejad got elected as country’s president in 2009, the base started getting involved in major oil and gas projects as well.
It controls over 812 registered companies inside and outside Iran. Some 10 percent of the company’s employees are the IRGC members and the rest are contractors.
In 2011, then a commander of the base, Rostam Qasemi said that the base has completed “more than 10,000 various construction projects” around the country.
Late in September, Akbar Torkan, a senior official in the President Hassan Rouhani administration criticized the firm for negligence and delay in completing the undertaken projects.
Torkan who is secretary of the Council of Cooperation of Special and Free Zones said that the headquarters is “strong” and the administration cannot overpower it.
Khamenei strategy for Syria and other Arab countries – A report by mullahs’ Supreme National Security Council on the latest developments in Syria to regime’s leaders.
Syria is our redline and the Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Yemen axis needs to be preserved and completed at all cost to be used to encircle the rest of the Arab countries
Confidential report reveals Khamenei strategy for Syria and other Arab countries
Following a visit by Ali Shamkhani, Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), to Syria on September 30, 2014 and his meetings with Bashar al-Assad and other Syrian government officials, this council prepared a report on the developments in Syria for clerical regime’s leaders.
This report emphasizes that Syria is Ali Khamenei’s redline and that in the past three years he has directed all resources to save Bashar Assad and has ordered that all necessary steps should be taken to preserve and complete the Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen ring in order to encircle the rest of the Arab countries.
Some of the points in this report are as follows:
1. The strategy of the Iranian regime remains investing in and keeping Bashar al-Assad regime in power at all cost. Khamenei has emphasized that “the Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen axis” is crucial “for the Islamic Republic of Iran and there should be no retreat in this regard” and that all “necessary measures” should be implemented to this end. It is through this axis that “we can encircle the rest of the Arab countries, especially Saudi Arabia and Jordan,” and put pressure on countries such as Egypt.
2. The report underscores that until a few months ago, the balance of power in Syria had tilted in favor of Assad and that his enemies had weakened. The developments in Iraq, in particular the removal of Nouri al-Maliki from power and the internal problems in that country, created problems for the regime in Syria namely transfer of forces and ammunition to that country via the Iraqi territory. Moreover, the regime was compelled to return from Syria to Iraq a portion of the terrorist paramilitary forces, such as Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq, Kata’ib Hezbollah, and Abulfadhl al-Abbas and Zolfaqar brigades.
3. However, the more important development was the coalition airstrikes that has changed the scene. The report goes on to add that there is this concern that if the Americans rein in ISIS and strengthen the Free Syrian Army, the situation will turn against Assad. According to Shamkhani’s report, in this trip, the subject of “how to use [coalition] airstrikes [against ISI] to the benefit the Bashar Assad regime was discussed in great detail” with Assad and other Syrian officials.
4. According to the report, following the coalition airstrikes against ISIS in Syria the morale of Bashar Assad and his commanders became very fragile and that Shamkhani’s visit to pump up their moral was quite necessary. Moreover, through this visit, the Iranian regime wanted to “convey this message to the United States and other enemies of Syria that Iran will continue to support Assad full force”.
5. The SNSC report emphasizes that it needs to obtain information on the coalition airstrikes against Syria in any way possible considering it to be “vital for the security of the Islamic Republic of Iran”. The information that the U.S. government provides to the Syrian regime on the bombings is directly passed on to the regime, the report said.
6. Since three years ago and when that the Free Syrian Army became a serious factor and the opposition gained strength, IRGC commanders and advisors went to Syria and de facto took control of “planning and commanding the operations”. The SNSC report states that the “problem in Syria could not be resolved with a conventional war. Therefore, IRGC used all its experience in conventional, urban and unconventional warfare, plus intelligence and security tactics to save Syria. Otherwise, the Syrian army would have been incapable of confronting the opposition and Assad would have been toppled in the first few months”. Two years ago, Assad’s forces were surrounded by their opposition; even the IRGC and Khamenei’s Office were surrounded by the Free Syrian Army.
7. In the more intricate operations, the IRGC commanders and operational forces would be directly present to direct the battle. Many of the IRGC and Quds Force (QF) officers and commanders who had retired or were busy elsewhere in the government returned to IRGC and were transferred to Syria. The IRGC drones collect extensive information on the opposition to further enable Bashar Assad forces to attack them.
8. According to this report, all measures in Syria are coordinated by Ali Khamenei and his Office and he directly issues orders to the QF and its commanders. Khamenei has ordered Qassem Suleimani, Commander of the QF, to consider Syria as his main task. Moreover, He “totally devoted to Syria Commander Hamadani whom all of you gentlemen are familiar with his eminence and his reputation”. Suleimani regularly travels to Syria and there is this saying among Syrian officers that “when Haj Qassem Suleimani is here, we sleep well at night”.
9. According to this report, Khamenei has allocated to Syria the military and political budget and expense of a country and as such “Agha [Khamenei] has stated that Syria is our redline. Had it not been for the leader’s wisdom, everything would have been finished by now” and in that case, we would have faced a calamity in Iraq and Lebanon and “even Tehran would have been affected”.
10. In most military and operational areas and in every checkpoint en routes and between cities, there is a special lane that regime’s military and IRGC elements in Syria pass through by showing their “Iranian National Identification”. Syrian military and security forces hold great respect for the revolutionary guards and consider them as their commanders.
11- In addition to the presence of the IRGC forces and their commanders in Syria as well as training Assad forces in Syria, the IRGC transfers a large number of Assad forces who are primarily from the Alawites Sect to Tehran in groups and returns them to Syria subsequent to going through rigorous training courses (from one to seven weeks). In Syria they are organized in operational groups similar to Basij Force in Iran to fight against the Free Syrian Army. In the beginning they got engaged in the fights under the pretext of defending Shrine of Zeynabieh and subsequently began to fight in defense of Assad regime. Syrian forces go through training in Iran in Imam Ali Garrison.
12- The participation of Turkey in the coalition and the vote by the Turkish Parliament for participation in the coalition and in particular the possibility of involvement of Turkish ground forces into Syria, is very dangerous for the future of Assad . The Iranian regime should prevent the more active intervention of Turkey by utilizing all of its resources.
The above report clearly shows that the Syrian crisis, and procrastination of the conflict and bloodletting in that country are direct consequences of meddling of the clerical regime. Otherwise, Assad regime was overthrown a long time ago and there were no place for growth and expansion of extremist forces in the scope that is occurring currently. Fundamentalism and extremism under the guise of Islam, came to existence in the region 35 years ago with the inception of the clerical regime and will depart the region with the downfall of the mullahs. As such, the creation and expansion of ISIS in Syria and Iraq are direct consequence of ominous meddling and yoke of the mullahs’ regime in these countries. Total defeat of the ISIS hinges upon the total eviction of the clerical regime from Iraq and Syria.
Cyber experts warn Iranian hackers becoming more aggressive – Iranian hackers have become increasingly aggressive and sophisticated, moving from disrupting and defacing U.S. websites to engaging in cyber espionage, security experts say.
According to Silicon Valley-based cyber security company FireEye Inc, a group called the Ajax Security Team has become the first Iranian hacking group known to use custom-built malicious software to launch espionage campaigns.
Cyber experts warn Iranian hackers becoming more aggressive
Ajax is behind an ongoing series of attacks on U.S. defense companies and has also targeted Iranians who are trying to circumvent Tehran’s Internet censorship efforts, FireEye said in a report to be published on Tuesday.
Many security experts have said that Iran is behind a series of denial-of-service attacks that have disrupted the online banking operations of major U.S. banks over the past few years.
“I’ve grown to fear a nation state that would never go toe-to-toe with us in conventional combat that now suddenly finds they can arrest our attention with cyber attacks,” Michael Hayden, former director of the CIA and the National Security Agency, told the Reuters Cybersecurity Summit on Monday.
Security experts say Iranian hackers stepped up their campaigns against foreign targets in the wake of the Stuxnet attack on Tehran’s nuclear program in 2010. The Stuxnet computer virus is widely believed to have been launched by the United States and prompted Iran to ramp up its own cyber programs.
According to FireEye, the Ajax Security Team was formed by hackers known as “HUrr!c4nE!” and “Cair3x,” and began by defacing websites. The group became increasingly political after Stuxnet, FireEye researcher Nart Villeneuve said.
“This is a good example of a phenomenon that we are going to increasingly see with hacker groups in Iran. If their objective is to attack enemies of the revolution and further the government’s objectives, then engaging in cyber espionage is going to have more impact than website defacements,” he said.
In one recent campaign, the Ajax hackers infected computers of U.S. defense companies by sending emails and social media messages to attendees of the IEEE Aerospace Conference and directed them to a fake website called aeroconf2014.org, which was tainted with malicious software, FireEye said.
FireEye declined to name the companies that were targeted and said that it had not been able to determine what data might have been stolen.
The Ajax hackers used a malicious software dubbed “Stealer” that sought to collect data about compromised computers and record keystrokes, according to FireEye. It could also grab screen shots and steal information from web browsers and email accounts.
“Stealer” encrypted that data, temporarily stored it on compromised machines, then sent it to servers controlled by the hackers.
Using “Stealer,” Ajax ran a separate operation that targeted people who were using software to try to circumvent Iran’s system for censoring content, such as pornography and political opposition sites, FireEye said.
Villeneuve said FireEye had also uncovered evidence that Ajax engaged in credit card fraud, which suggests the hackers were not under the direct control of the Iranian government.
Leonard Moodispaw, chief executive of cybersecurity firm KEYW Corp, said that for now, Iranian hackers appeared to be increasingly spying and stealing money but not launching Stuxnet-like destructive attacks.
“They are more interested in IP and taking money than in shutting anybody down,” Moodispaw told the Reuters summit. KEYW’s biggest customers are U.S. intelligence agencies.
Six prisoners secretly hanged in Iran – The Iranian regime has secretly hanged at least six prisoners last week in three cities, according to reports received from Iran.
A group of four prisoners were hanged in southern city of Bandar-abbas on Tuesday (October 7, 2014), a report said.
Six prisoners secretly hanged in Iran
Another prisoner was executed in the main prison in western city of Marivan on Thursday (October 9, 2014).
A man identified as Mohammad Reza Mazlomi, 28, from the southern city of Bam was hanged in the city’s prison after more than five years imprisonment.
Iran under the rule of the clerical dictatorship has the highest number of executions per capita in the world.
Since Hassan Rouhani has become the president of the regime over 1000 prisoners have been executed whilst the news on the execution of many prisoners never gets out.
At least 27 women and 12 prisoners who were juveniles at the time of their arrest, together with 20 political prisoners, are amongst those executed with 57 of these executions carried out in public. During this period, a number of prisoners were killed under torture.
In a message on the occasion of the World Day Against the Death Penalty (October 10, 2014), Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the Iranian Resistance, stated on Friday that the religious dictatorship ruling Iran is a government of executions based on its history, ideology, laws and daily policies.
The head of policy and government affairs at Amnesty International said recently “Iran is a serial human rights offender” adding ”President Rouhani has attempted to cast himself as a mild-mannered reformist figure, but the brutal reality is that Iran is hanging an average of two prisoners a day, the vast majority after unfair trials.”
IRGC Commander: US Sidelined in Region – TEHRAN (Tasnim) – The US has succumbed to the regional influence of the Islamic Republic of Iran, said the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Lieutenant Commander Brigadier General Hossein Salami.
Today, Iran is more powerful than ever and plays a significant role in the region, the IRGC commander said, reiterating, “the Islamic Revolution has managed to create more space to confront the enemy.”
General Hossein Salami: US Sidelined in Region
The US has been sidelined in Iraq and has failed in making change in Syria, Brigadier General Salami underscored, Washington has been forced to change its past strategies.
Back in September, Brigadier General Hossein Salami said the US military operations in the region enabled Iran to identify the shortcomings of American armed forces, adding that Iran is now keenly aware of US weak points.
Speaking in a television program on Saturday night, Brigadier General Salami said Iran has been able to gain good knowledge of US weak points after Washington intensified its military presence across the region.
“We could measure their military capabilities, realize the major factors for expansion of (our) power along those lines… assess their (American’s) weak point very well, and accordingly (could) realize the ways to counter and overcome them,” the Iranian commander pointed out.
Asked about how Iran’s military might compares with other countries in the region, Salami said, “Our distance with other regional countries in this area is very large, and I cannot compare the military power of Iran with other regional countries.”
He further touched on Iran’s high missile capabilities to defend the country, and noted that Iran is able to destroy unlimited targets by firing a barrage of missiles in case any potential threat is posed against the country’s national security.
