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Two Iranian political prisoners on hunger strike

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Two Iranian political prisoners on hunger strike

 

Two more Iranian political prisoners, Mohammad Ali Velayati and Ahmadreza Ahmadpour, have started a hunger strike to protest the situation of political prisoners in Iran.

The Kaleme opposition website reports that Mohammad Ali Velayati, the head of MirHosein Mousavi’s provincial campaigns in the 2009 presidential elections, has been on a hunger strike since Wednesday, March 14 in protest of “the complete shutdown of the Constitution and the issuance of unreal, arbitrary and cruel sentences for numerous political prisoners.”

Velayati is currently in ward 350 of Evin Prison and has called for a meeting with the Islamic Republic’s Prosecutor General as well as a new hearing.

Velayati was arrested in February of 2011 and sentenced to two years in prison for “collusion and assembly against national security and propaganda against the Islamic Republic.”

The Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) also reports that Ahmadreza Ahmadpour, a member of the clergy and the reformist Islamic Iran Participation Front, has begun a hunger strike in Ahvaz Sepidar Prison.

Last Tuesday, he informed his family that he is to be transferred outside of the province, and the family has been told that they cannot visit him because he is now on a hunger strike.

Ahmadpour, who is being denied leave to visit his sick wife, was arrested in December of 2009 and sentenced to one year in prison and defrocking for “publishing false information about the regime and putting Shiite clergy into disrepute.”

He was released after serving his time but was picked up once again by a plainclothes officer in June of 2011, remaining in custody ever since.

Ahmadpour had earlier gone through a 16-day hunger strike to protest prison conditions and written a letter about it to the United Nations Secretary General.

Ahmadipour is now sentenced to three years in prison, 10 years of exile and expulsion from the ranks of the clergy.

Source: radiozamaneh

Cyber-attack on BBC leads to suspicion of Iran’s involvement

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Cyber-attack on BBC leads to suspicion of Iran’s involvement

 

A “sophisticated cyber-attack” on the BBC has been linked to Iran’s efforts to disrupt the BBC Persian Service.

In a speech Director General Mark Thompson plans to say that the internet attack coincided with efforts to jam two of the service’s satellite feeds into Iran.

He will say: “We regard the coincidence of these different attacks as self-evidently suspicious.”

Last month Mr Thompson accused Iran of intimidating Persian service workers.

Reporters Without Borders has also complained about Iran’s “cyber-army”.

The latest revelation follows a blog post by Mr Thompson in February in which he complained of the “repeated jamming of international TV stations such as BBC Persian TV, preventing the Iranian people from accessing a vital source of free information”.

In his speech to the Royal Television Society he will note that on the day of the cyber-attack there had also been an attempt to disrupt the Persian Service’s London phone-lines by the use of multiple automatic calls.

“I don’t want to go into any more detail about these incidents except to say that we are taking every step we can, as we always do, to ensure that this vital service continues to reach the people who need it,” Mr Thompson will say.

Some parts of the BBC were unable to access email and other internet services on 1 March. It is understood that the attack may have been caused by its systems being overwhelmed by a flood of external communication requests – a so-called distributed denial-of-service attack.

However, a BBC spokeswoman was unable to provide detail about the incident.

“I’m afraid we can’t comment any further on the details of the attacks than what’s in the extract [of the speech],” a she said.

Cyber-censors

The revelations follow Reporters Without Borders “Enemies of the Internet” report which was released at the start of the week.

The free-speech lobby group reported that Iran and some of the other countries on its register “censor internet access so effectively that they restrict their populations to local intranets that bear no resemblance to the world wide web.”

It added that Iran’s authorities were now capable of blocking ports used by virtual private networks designed to bypass the restrictions.

It also reported that at times of unrest the state had slowed internet connections speeds to make it impossible to send or receive photos or videos.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard created a “cyber army” in 2010. Hundreds of net users have been arrested and some even sentenced to death.

Earlier this month the country’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, also ordered officials to create The Supreme Council of Virtual Space – a body tasked with defining policy and co-ordinating decisions regarding the net.

Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not reply to a request for comment.

 

Source: insideofiran

Azerbaijan arrests 22 alleged Iran-backed attack plotters

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Azerbaijan arrests 22 alleged Iran-backed attack plotters

 

Azerbaijan has arrested 22 people on suspicion of plotting attacks on the U.S. and Israeli embassies in Baku on behalf of neighboring Iran, the national security ministry said Wednesday.

“Twenty-two citizens of Azerbaijan have been arrested by the national security ministry for cooperating with the Iranian Sepah,” it said in a statement, referring to the elite Iranian Revolutionary Guards.

“On orders of the Sepah they were to commit terrorist acts against the U.S., Israeli and other Western states’ embassies and the embassies’ employees.”

The ministry said the suspects were recruited from 1999 onwards and trained in the use of weapons and spy techniques at military camps in Iran to enable them to gather information on foreign embassies, organizations and companies in Azerbaijan and stage attacks.

“Firearms, cartridges, explosives and espionage equipment were found during the arrest,” the statement said, without specifying when or how the suspects were detained.

They have been charged with treason and the purchase and possession of weapons and explosives.

The ministry said that a Revolutionary Guards officer named Akbar Pakravesh gave the Azerbaijani recruits equipment and money and met them in Damascus and Moscow to avoid suspicion.

“The Azerbaijanis began spying on diplomatic missions, companies and public organizations including the Jewish center Sohnut, a U.S. fast food restaurant, British oil company BP-Azerbaijan’s office and other objects in Baku,” it said.

But the accusations were rejected by the brother of one of those arrested, Niyazi Kerimov, who comes from the town of Nardaran which is seen as a hotbed of Islamic activism in Azerbaijan.

“I believe that the allegations against my brother are unfounded and fabricated,” Natiq Kerimov told Radio Azadliq.

Tensions between the Islamic republic and mainly Muslim but officially secular Azerbaijan have risen in recent months, with a series of arrests in Baku of attack plot suspects with alleged links to Tehran.

Iran has also been angered by ex-Soviet Azerbaijan’s ties to Israel and its reported purchase of hundreds of millions of dollars of weapons from the Jewish state.

Tehran last month accused Azerbaijan of working with Israel’s spy services and helping assassins who murdered Iranian nuclear scientists in recent years — a claim rejected by Baku as “slander”.

This week however the neighbors appeared to be taking steps to improve relations as public declarations of friendship were made in Tehran during a visit by Azerbaijan’s Defense Minister Safar Abiyev.

“We are sure that we will face no problem from our brother and neighbour Azerbaijan,” Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was quoted by the official IRNA news agency as saying on Monday after meeting Abiyev.

Abiyev was quoted as saying that “we consider Iran as a friend and brother.”

The uneasy relations between the neighbors are complicated by the presence of a huge ethnic Azeri minority in Iran, which far outnumbers Azerbaijan’s own population of 9.2 million.

 

Source: alarabiya

Abdolreza Ghanbari on the Verge of Execution

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Abdolreza Ghanbari on the Verge of Execution

 

Imprisoned teacher Abdolreza Ghanbari’s pardon request has been denied by the Pardon Commission of Tehran Province Judiciary, a source close to his family told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran. With the rejection of his pardon request, once the head of the Judiciary issues his approval, Ghanbari may be executed at any moment.

“On Monday, just before his visit with his family, prison authorities informed him that his pardon request has been refused. Mr. Ghanbari gave this news to his family during their visit. Now they are concerned day and night that Abdolreza’s death sentence may be carried out at any moment,” the source said.

Abdolreza Ghanbari, 44, is a Persian literature teacher and a resident of the poverty-stricken Pakdasht, near the town of Varamin. He was arrested immediately following the street protests on 27 December 2009 (Ashura Day) at his place of work, and was tried on 30 January 2010 without the knowledge of his family or access to a defense lawyer.

Branch 15 of Tehran Revolutionary Court under Judge Salavati sentenced Ghanbari to death on charges of “moharebeh (enmity with God), through participation in the street gatherings on Ashura Day,” and “contact with enemy groups.” Under Iran’s penal code, moharebeh is meant to criminalize acts of armed action against the government. At his trial, the evidence of his “contact with enemy groups” was presented as “suspicious emails” and “contact with a media outlet outside the country.” On 10 May 2011, Branch 36 of Tehran Appeals Court under Judge Zargar upheld Abdolreza Ghanbari’s death sentence. Ghanbari subsequently submitted a request to the Pardon Commission of Tehran Province Judiciary, which has just been denied.

“His family has written a letter to the head of the Judiciary again, asking for a review, but so far they have not heard back and don’t know what will happen,” the source told the Campaign.

Abdolreza Ghanbari is currently being held in Ward 350 of Evin Prison. He was reportedly beaten during his interrogations and was denied basic rights such as contact with his family and access to a defense lawyer.

“During his trial in the lower court he did not have a lawyer. They took him to court unexpectedly. We hired him a lawyer later, but his lawyer has not been allowed to meet him even once. Abdolreza’s family can only communicate with the authorities through writing letters,” the source said.

Asked about Ghanbari’s physical and psychological conditions, the source said, “Thank God he is well psychologically. He is waiting to see what happens. But his physical conditions are not good. He has developed kidney disease in prison, something he didn’t have before. His family’s letters requesting his transfer to a hospital outside and his treatment have all remained unanswered.”

Satellite Image Reveals High Explosive Test Chamber at Iran’s Parchin Site

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Satellite Image Reveals High Explosive Test Chamber at Iran’s Parchin Site

 

David Albright and Paul Brannan

ISIS has identified in commercial satellite imagery a building on the Parchin site in Iran that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) wants to visit because it contains, or used to contain, a high-explosive test chamber.  The building is located on a relatively small and isolated compound within the Parchin military site and has its own perimeter security wall or fencing.

A berm can be seen between this building and a neighboring one, which is consistent with a description of the compound in the November 8, 2011 IAEA Safeguards Report.  The compound is located more than four kilometers away from high-explosive related facilities also at the Parchin site which the IAEA visited in 2005.

The IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano recently noted that the IAEA has “information that that some activity is ongoing” at the Parchin site. When asked if he was concerned that Iran was cleansing the site, Amano said that the “possibility is not excluded…” and that “we have to go there.” If Iran is engaging in clean up work to hide evidence at the Parchin site then it could be occurring inside this building as well. Thus, the IAEA deserves international support to visit this site without delay to inspect the inside of this building and other locations in Parchin as well.

In the November 8, 2011 Safeguards Report , the IAEA described evidence, including satellite imagery, indicating that Iran built the large explosive test chamber at the Parchin site and used it to conduct hydrodynamic experiments in the early 2000s, possibly related to the development of nuclear weapons.  The IAEA has evidence that test chamber was placed at Parchin in 2000 and that a building was subsequently constructed around it.

The Associated Press has reported that satellite imagery in early November 2011 and satellite imagery from more recently shows increased activity at the Parchin site.  It is not clear if this reported activity is occurring specifically at this compound, or at other areas at the Parchin site.

ISIS has acquired from The Atlantic Wire a December 12, 2011 commercial satellite image of the site.  It is not possible to gauge the relative level of activity at the site in this image without comparing it to multiple image dates over a short period of time.  The next most recent available commercial satellite image of this site is from July 28, 2011.  ISIS will continue to seek and publish more satellite images of this site.

 

Source: thecuttingedgenews

Gonabadi Dervish, Kasra Nouri Re-arrested

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Gonabadi Dervish, Kasra Nouri Re-arrested

 

Mr.Kasra Nouri was again arrested  this morning, Esfand 24 1390  ( Mar 14 , 2012 ) . According to Majzooban reporter , on wednesday Esfand 24 at 11 A.M Security forces went to the house of Gonabadi dervish , Kasra Nouri  in Shiraz and  arrested him on charge of  interview with foreign Radio.

Although this Gonabadi dervish had been arrested on the morning of Wednesday 21 Dey ( Jan 11 , 2012 ) and then after Being confined  in Intelligence Detention and Shiraz central prison  for 46 days, was released on bail of 50 million tomans on Esfand 07 , 1390 ( Feb 26 , 2012 ).

According to the report ,Gonabadi dervish’s home inspection , took 1.5 hours with intimidation and insulting his family.

Source: insideofiran

EU condemns harsh sentence for Iranian lawyer

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EU condemns harsh sentence for Iranian lawyer

 

The European Union has condemned the “harsh verdict given by an Iranian court” to human rights lawyer Abdolfattah Soltani and called on the Islamic Republic to release him immediately.

The French News Agency reports that Catherine Ashton, the EU’s head of foreign policy, issued a statement on March 13 saying: “The 18-year prison sentence and the 20-year ban from practising law imposed by the court constitute another unacceptable attack against the legal profession in Iran.”

Soltani was charged with “propaganda against the regime, founding the Human Rights Defenders Centre, assembly and collusion against the regime” and “collecting pelf” by receiving the Nuremberg Human Rights Award.

Soltani was arrested last September and is currently in Evin Prison. He was arrested previously in June of 2009 and released after two months and a large bail payment.

The 58-year-old lawyer was accused of espionage six years ago but was acquitted in the appellate court.

Members of the Human Rights Defenders Centre, an NGO providing legal support in various human rights cases, have been the target of repeated government persecution, especially in the past two years.

Source: radiozamaneh

Iran threatens N. Israel with bombardment from Lebanon

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Iran threatens N. Israel with bombardment from Lebanon

 

Tehran has begun capitalizing on its allies” two perceived victories: Bashar Assad’s success in seizing Idlib from rebel hands and the Palestinian Jihad Islami’s triumphal missile assault from Gaza.

The Iranians are now moving forward with plans to match the Palestinian assault on southern Israeli with an offensive on the north from Lebanon. This is reported by DEBKAfile’s exclusive sources in the wake of a visit paid by high-ranking Iranian and Hizballah officials Wednesday morning, March 14, to the Lebanese-Israeli border region opposite Metulah, Israel’s northernmost town at the tip of the Galilee Panhandle.

The Iranian group, led by Ali Akbar Javanfekr, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s spokesman, arrived in a heavily guarded convoy at the Fatma outpost opposite Metulah for its rendezvous with Hizballah military intelligence officers.
Once there, they kept moving around near the Lebanese-Israeli border fence. At times, they came up close and  examined the Israel Defense Forces’ ongoing work for fortifying the border fence and upgrading it from a boundary marker to a military barrier able to withstand terrorist incursions into the Galilee panhandle.
The Iranian visitor, Javanfekr, commented in the hearing of our sources: “The Zionists can build any wall they like, whether of concrete, iron or plastic, but we and Hizballah will knock it down, like Israel itself.”

He pitched his voice loudly enough to carry across the border.
His words were taken by top Israeli commanders as a blunt threat of a missile offensive on similar lines to the Gaza confrontation – only this time instead of Jihad Islami in Gaza, Hizballah would be entrusted with shooting missiles from Lebanon.
Word of this threat spurred Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to sharpen his tone in his speech to the Knesset later Wednesday and declare, “We shall strike Iran even if our American friends object.”

He was further irked by a decision by US President Barack Obama and visiting British premier David Cameron, reported by DEBKAfile’s Washington sources, to intensify their efforts for holding Israel back from striking Iran’s nuclear facilities.
Netanyahu therefore stressed once again that Israel would decide for itself the best way to pre-empt a nuclear Iran.
No sooner were his comments broadcast, when Washington announced that Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs Andrew Shapiro would be traveling to Israel forthwith.  He will no doubt try and clarify how far Netanyahu really means to go.

Source: debka

Two men publicly hanged in Mashhad, one day after a UN request for a Moratorium on the Death Penalty in Iran

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Two men publicly hanged in Mashhad, one day after a UN request for a Moratorium on the Death Penalty in Iran

Two prisoners were hanged in public in the city of Mashhad (northeastern Iran) early morning on March 13.

According to an official Iranian news agency, the men were charged and convicted of involvement in 13 rape cases. They were arrested less than three months ago. The public hangings took place in Mashhad’s Ferdowsi Square at 6:30 AM local time. 

The prisoners were identified as Akram Norouz Zahi, known as “Yasein”, and Mojtaba Afshar, known as ‘Saddam”. One of the prisoners was an Afghan citizen, according to the state-run news agency Fars.

According to the Iran Human Rights annual report on the death penalty there was a dramatic increase in the number of public executions in 2011 in Iran. 65 people were hanged publicly- that is more than three times the number in 2010 (19 public hangings) and 7 times higher than in 2009 (9 public executions).

It seems that this trend is continuing in 2012 where so far at least 15 people have been hanged publicly.

Today’s public executions took place just one day following the UN Special Rapporteur Ahmad Shaheed’s presentation of his report on the human rights situation in Iran at the UN Security Council meeting in Geneva. Shaheed had criticized the dramatic increase in the number of executions, and called on the Iranian government “to seriously consider a moratorium on the death penalty for all crimes” and “to allow for legal representation of accused persons at all stages of investigations.”

Source: Iran Human rights

Deteriorating of Mr. Boroujerdi’s Physical Condition following an Attempt on his Life

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Deteriorating of Mr. Boroujerdi’s Physical Condition following an Attempt on his Life

 

Based on Report sent to the “Human Rights Activists for Democracy in Iran” on Friday, in 9 March 2012, there was made an attempt on Mr. Kazemeini Boroujerdi’s life, the prominent religious leader who has spent more than 2,000 days in prison without any leave. His health condition is critical and he has the symptoms of severe poisoning.

Apparently, Mr. Boroujerdi’s food was poisoned by two prisoners. And since then both of those prisoners have been on leave and they are not available.

Over the past few months, this is the second attempt on this prisoner who opposed to religious Supreme Leadership. International Human Rights societies and defenders were protested against the failed attempt on Mr. Boroujerdi’s life previously. Also, it has been mentioned in the recent report by the Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Iran.

It should be noted that in October 2006, Mr. Boroujerdi’s mother who was arrested with him, and was also poisoned in the prison with the same method and then she was released from prison. Finally, she died in February of that year because of problems of her digesting system.

Mr. Boroujerdi’s family kindly request all human rights organizations and individuals to do an immediate urgent action in this regards while they know Ali Khamenei as a direct responsible for his life.

Human Rights Activists for Democracy in Iran, condemns the attempt on Mr. Kazemeini Boroujerdi’s life, the dissident cleric, which was made against him by the agents of Religious Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei And requests the High Commissioner for Human Rights and other international authorities to send the crimes against humanity case of the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei to the UN Security Council in order to take the necessary enforced decisions.

Source: insideofiran
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