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EU High Representative Condemns Wave of Executions in Iran

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EU High Representative Condemns Wave of Executions in Iran

 

Catherine Ashton, EU High Representative in foreign affairs and security policy, issued a statement condemning the wave of execution by the clerical (mullahs) dictatorship and demanded to stop it.

She said in her statement: “I am deeply concerned because of the increased number of executions in Iran. Based on data gathered from many sources during the first half of 2011, the rate of executions in Iran in proportion to the its population, places Iran at the top list of users of executions.”

The EU high representative in her statement against against death penalty in Iran added: this is clearly in violation of the international trend towards abolition of death penalty, a trend with increasing support for the United Nations general assembly resolution which calls for a moratorium on the use of death penalty.

In her closing statement, Catherine Ashton emphasized: the EU has a strong and principled stance against death penalty. Therefore, the US wants Iran to stop executions in hand, and to place a moratorium on the death penalty.

 

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Iran arrests two journalists

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Iran arrests two journalists

 

Two members of the main elements behind the Ayandeh Website were arrested on Wednesday.

They were arrested because of the actions of this website and the site’s contents.

One of these people was arrested before this in March 2010 and was released on bail about one month later. However, reports about his court sentence were not published…

This website also routinely publishes insults against some top officials of the Islamic Republic, highlights rifts among top officials and [attempts to] weaken sensitive institutions. (Javan Online state-run Website – Jul. 29, 2011)

 

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Iranian Citizens Abused

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Iranian Citizens Abused

 

VOA – With the release of three women, it is hoped that Iran will show similar compassion to those still detained.

It’s good news that the Iranian regime has released detained Iranian actress and reform movement supporter Pegah Ahangarani; actress and filmmaker Mahnaz Mohammadi; and photojournalist and women’s rights activist Maryam Majd.  With the release of these three women, it is hoped that Iran will show similar compassion to those still detained.  As much as this move by the Iranian government is welcomed, there are still outstanding concerns in regard to its human rights record.

Iranian actress Marzieh Vafameher, who was detained by authorities in June and is reportedly housed in the notorious Gharechak prison in Varamin, has not been released.

The arbitrary arrests and imprisonment of distinguished female cultural figures in Iran coincide with a statement signed by 500 women’s movement activists and supporters decrying an escalation of violence against women in Iran, including violence perpetrated by state security forces. The signatories cite “systematic violence, constant insults and humiliation.”

The treatment women face in prison is coupled with the limitations they face in Iranian society in general.  Women in Iran face discrimination under Iran’s legal system, as well as limitations in terms of dress code, academic quotas, and freedom of mobility.

Women are not the only ones to face barriers; repressive treatment extends to many members of  Iranian civil society, including religious minorities, artists, independent trade ists, journalists, human rights defenders, and university students and professors.

In a statement to Congress, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Jeffrey Feltman and U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor Michael Posner called the Iranian government’s behavior “shameful” and “depraved.” They pledged that the U.S. would continue to shine a spotlight at the gross violations of human rights taking place in the country. It is essential, they said, that human rights abusers in Tehran “know that we are watching them.  Until such time as they are held accountable by domestic authorities, it is our responsibility to hold them accountable at the international level.”

As many more citizens remain detained, the U.S. government, along with many across the world, hopes that the Iranian government will extend a similar show of good will to them as they did to Pegah Ahangarani and Mahnaz Mohammadi.

 

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Zoroastrian citizen Mohsen Sadeghipour began serving 4.5 year prison sentence

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Zoroastrian citizen Mohsen Sadeghipour began serving 4.5 year prison sentence

 

Rahana: Mohsen Sadeghipour has been detained after being summoned in order to serve his sentence.

He was detained during the Ashura protests along with his wife Negar Shahpari and his brother in laws Abolfazl and Mohammad Javad Shahpari. They were transferred to Evin Prison.

Sadeghipour was sentenced to 4.5 years in prison, 74 lashes and a monetary fine for insulting the Supreme Leader, distubing public order, anti-regime propaganda by propaganda for the Zoroastrian faith and organizing ancient ceremonies. The sentence has been upheld by the appeals court.

His brother in laws were each sentenced to 2.5 years in prison and 74 lashes. They are awiating the decision of the appeals court.

Sadeghipour’s cousin Mojtaba Ahmadi has also been sentenced to 6 years in prison and has been held in prison since last year without prison visits or prison leaves. He has been sentenced for blasphemy, gathering, conspiracy and anti-regime propaganda.

 

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Baha’is Arrested In Several Iranian Cities

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Baha’is Arrested In Several Iranian Cities

 

Iranian state media have reported the arrests of an unspecified number of Baha’is in cities across the country, RFE/RL’s Radio Farda reports.

Arrests were reported in Tehran, Karaj, Esfahan, Shiraz, Mashhad, Yasouj, and Larestan.

The state Fars News Agency reported on July 31 that the arrested Baha’is belonged to an “international corruption network” engaged in “promoting and propagandizing the Baha’i cult through sex appeal and homosexuality.”

The names of the arrested Baha’is were not made public.

Abdolkarim Lahiji, vice president of the Paris-based International Federation of Human Rights Leagues, told RFE/RL the Iranian regime has brought new charges against the Baha’i followers in order to justify its persecution of them.

Lahiji said that for the past 30 years the authorities were under the impression that by intensifying pressure on the Baha’is they could force them to abjure their faith.

“Now that they have failed, they are adopting new policies to harass the Baha’i community,” he added.

Lahiji also noted that when Mohammad Javad Larijani, as the head of Iran’s High Council for Human Rights, openly and officially calls Baha’ism a “cult” and expresses the establishment’s hostility toward cults, state persecution of Baha’is increases.

Such statements are construed by officials as authorizing the use of any kind of violence against Baha’is, Lahiji added.

 

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Jailed Iranian journalist refused furlough

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Jailed Iranian journalist refused furlough

 

The Iranian judiciary has denied a temporary leave to jailed Iranian journalist Siamak Ghaderi, who was arrested last year.

Ghaderi worked for more than 18 years at the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) and was dismissed last year for publishing critical views of the government on his weblog, Irna-ye-ma (Our IRNA).

He was then sentenced to four years in prison for “propaganda against the regime, disturbing public sensibilities and publishing falsehoods.”

In the wake of the controversial presidential elections of 2009, Iranian journalists have experienced increased pressure from government officials. Over the past two years, according to opposition reports, 108 journalists have been arrested; some have been released but many are still behind bars serving harsh sentences.

Most recently, Mashallah Shamsolvaezin, the deputy head of the Iranian Association of Journalists and a spokesman for the Society for the Defence of Press Freedom, was summoned by the authorities to serve out a 16-month prison term.

In an open letter, Shamsolvaezin said serving time in jail has become the price demanded from every Iranian journalist and the only way for journalists to maintain their independence.

Reporters Without Borders refers to Iran as the “biggest jail for journalists” in the Middle East. According to the group’s latest report, Iran has the worst conditions for journalists, with the exception of Turkmenistan, North Korea and Eritrea.

 

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Communications minister says the aim of national Internet is controlling emails

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Communications minister says the aim of national Internet is controlling emails

 

Inside of Iran: Reza Taqipour, Iran’s Communications and Information Technology Minister stressed on Tuesday’s Iran International Communications Seminar that the National Internet Network will be equipped with national emails and a national search engine.

“One of the main aims of the National Internet Network is gathering information from and managing emails inside the country so that security issues in this sector be dealt with”…

According to the Five Year Law of the Fifth Development Plan, the Ministry of Communications is obligated to create and develop a national information network and a secure and permanent internal data center by following sharia and the country’s national security. Until the end of this program, 60 percent of families and all businesses have to be connected to the National Information and Internet Network.

Reza Naqipour also stressed that filtering in the social network is more than what is in the minds of internet uses and said, “Filtering is existent in the internet in an invisible manner to protect the network and prevent internet attacks and many other issues”. (Mehr state-run news Agency, Radio Farda Website – Jul. 28, 2011)

 

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Iranian Revolutionary Guards train new Hamas commando brigade in Gaza

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Iranian Revolutionary Guards train new Hamas commando brigade in Gaza

 

Iranian Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) officers has just finished setting up Hamas’ first commando unit especially trained to combat any Israel military force entering the Gaza Strip, DEBKAfile’s military sources report. The new “Al Qods Brigades” unit of 400 men is to be the first of three. A week ago, July 23, the first unit held a passing-out parade and leave-taking ceremony from its two Iranian instructors.
DEBKAfile’s intelligence sources report that the pair arrived in the Gaza Strip in the latter half of May on Iranian passports which gave their cover names as Morteza Rahban and Hojjat Safar-Zadeh.

Their journey took them from Sudan through Egypt and Sinai where they were led by Bedouin smugglers to the contraband tunnels accessing the Gaza Strip. They went back to Tehran by the same route.
The two officers were members of the IRGC’s notorious Al Qods Brigades which undertakes overseas terrorist and covert activities on behalf of the Iranian regime. For the Al Qods commander Gen. Qassem Suleimaini, setting up a Hamas commando force in Gaza was a high and immediate priority.

This information reached the desk of US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, who passed it on to Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak when they met in Washington Friday, July 29. Panetta has scheduled a visit to Israel in October.
The urban guerrilla combat tactics which the Iranian instructors imparted to their Hamas trainees drew heavily on the experience al Qods is gaining in Syria, where its experts are helping President Bashar Assad crack down on protest – especially accentuating advanced disguise and camouflage techniques for striking at the enemy under cover.

Many of the weapons handed out to trainees came from Libyan rebels who received them from British and French intelligence for their war on Muammar Qaddafi. The rebels sold the arms to the purchasing agencies Iran, Hizballah and Hamas maintain secretly in Benghazi. The weapons were then smuggled to the Gaza Strip via Egypt.
The Gaza passing-out parade marked the end of an exercise the Hamas graduates carried out, which their Iranian instructors praised as “most successful.”

The new Hamas commandos were also given a cover name – The Brigades for Reconstruction and Challenge – under which they will set up more brigades in the coming six months. The newly-trained units will then fan out to the areas bordering on Israel, armed with techniques and weapons for inflicting the highest possible number of casualties on any invading force.

 

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Iranian Regime Elevates Mistreatment of the Political Prisoners

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Iranian Regime Elevates Mistreatment of the Political Prisoners

 

Zahra Jabbari, a political prisoners and a family member of Ashraf residents, who is in a harsh physical condition because of illness and requires hospitalization, has been transferred to a psychiatric hospital instead, by the hangmen of the clerical dictatorship in Iran, to be subjected to more psychological torture.

Zahra Jabbary, who has a 4-years old child, was arrested because she has a brother and a sister in camp Ashraf.

She is under constant watch by 4 Information Ministry hangmen. They prevent Zahra to see her child to put more pressure on her.

Another report indicates that the political prisoners in Gohar Dasht, Karaj, remain under pressures and inhumane treatment by the clerical regime’s hangmen. As the result of these mistreatments, the condition of prisoners who suffer from serious illness became worse.

 

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Political prisoner dies due to regime’s medical neglect

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Political prisoner dies due to regime’s medical neglect

 

Daneshjou News reported on July 25 that a political prisoner in Urmia prison died as a result of preventing treatment by the henchmen of the Iranian regime.

According to this report that is also reported by Iran-Khabar and HRANA News Agency, Nasser Khanizadeh, a political prisoner from the city of Boukan was suffering from acute gastrointestinal problem; upon worsening of his condition, he was transferred from Boukan prison to the Urmia prison’s clinic, but because he was denied timely treatment, he lost his life on Sunday July 24.

 

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