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Six IRGC members killed in conflicts with dissident group

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Six IRGC members killed in conflicts with dissident group

A commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) and five other Guards members have been killed in the conflict with the Kurdish militant group PJAK, says an Iranian media report.

The Fars News Agency reports that Colonel Asemi and five other IRGC members were killed when their vehicle hit a land mine planted by PJAK forces.

IRGC public relations reports that the victims will be laid to rest in Qom on Saturday.

In recent weeks, IRGC forces have launched a campaign against the Kurdish dissident group PJAK, in the Iran-Iraq border regions of northwestern Iran.

The IRGC claims it has dismantled a chief PJAK base; however, PJAK forces deny the claim.

Meanwhile, Iran has been shelling the Iraqi Kurdistan border regions. The attack was triggered by claims that the Kurdistan Regional Government in Iraq has supplied a large piece of land for the use of PJAK forces.

The KRG has denied the allegations and called on Iran to end its artillery attacks.

 

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Female architect students banned from getting working permits

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Female architect students banned from getting working permits

Khorasan Daily wrote: Some students claim that according to a law passed by the Housing Ministry, from now on technology engineering architecture and applied architecture graduates have no right to design [building] plans.
In light of the fact that supervision permits are only given to male graduates, girls are deprived of permits and are studying [architecture] for no apparent reason! (Ayandeh state-run website, Khorasan state-run Daily – Jul. 21, 2011)

 

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Baha’i Residents in Kata Village Arrested

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Baha’i Residents in Kata Village Arrested

HRANA News Agency – During the last three weeks, Iranian security forces have raided Baha’i residents’ houses in the village of Kata and arrested a large number of them. The village of Kata is situated in northwestern Iran at the outskirts of Yasuj, the capital of Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad Province.

According to a report by Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), during these raids, Iranian security officers have arrested a large number of Baha’i citizens without showing an arrest warrant.

It has been reported that a number of the detainee have been transferred to Shiraz while the whereabouts of the rest is unknown.

In the village of Kata, there are about fifty Baha’i families who are farmers living off the land. Since these families’ breadwinners have been arrested, their farmland and crops are left unattended and consequently being destroyed little by little.

 

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Student Activist Hadi Hamidi Shafiq Arrested; His Wedding Not Permitted

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Student Activist Hadi Hamidi Shafiq Arrested; His Wedding Not Permitted

HRANA News Agency – In an unprecedented move, Tabriz Intelligence Agency prevented Hadi Hamidi Shafiq to have a wedding.

According to a report by South Azerbaijan Student Movement (AZOH), Hadi Hamidi Shafiq’s wedding was to take place in Tabriz with political and social activists from all over Azerbaijan attending the event. Yesterday morning, on July 20, 2011, Tabriz Intelligence Agency summoned the wedding banquet hall director and interrogated him about the scheduled event.

Additionally, this morning, Tabriz Intelligence Agency contacted the bride and the groom’s families by phone, summoning them for questioning and threatening to arrest all the guests. The intelligence agents also contacted Hadi Hamidi Shafiq, forbidding him from going ahead with his wedding plans. When faced with his opposition, the agents told him that the wedding ceremony would be held by them and all the guests without any exception would be detained.

The intelligence agents from Tehran and Urmia offices have also phoned some of the activists invited to the wedding in order to warn them not to attend the ceremony or be arrested.

According to the last reliable news, Hadi Hamidi Shafiq has been arrested by Tabriz Intelligence Agency, and his whereabouts is still unknown.

Recently, Hadi Hamidi Shafiq was sentenced to six months in prison and 60 lashes on charges of propaganda against the regime. In May 2006, Hadi Hamidi Shafiq was arrested for attending demonstrations and spent 17 months behind bars.

 

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Fighting Continues in Kurdistan

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Fighting Continues in Kurdistan

HRANA News Agency – Since the fighting between PJAK (Partiya Jiyana Azad a Kurdistane) and the Islamic Republic’s military forces began, the degree of violence seen in regions alongside Iran’s western and northwestern borders have been unprecedented in recent years.

According to a report by Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), on July 13, 2011, the fighting broke out between PJAK and the Islamic Republic’s military forces. Although more than one week has past, the violent confrontation between two sides continues. During this time, a number of fighters on both sides of the conflict have been killed and wounded.

The mountainous regions of Shaho and kosalan have witnessed heavy fighting while the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps has maintained its heavy presence in these regions.

On Tuesday night, July 19, 2011, local residents reported that the two sides fought violently in a region called “hah Vari Sardasht” on a road between Kamyaran and Sarvabad. As a result, several individuals were killed.

Reports from Sardasht and Piran Shahr indicate hospitals and clinics in these two cities face shortage as the number of those injured increases. Meanwhile, several wounded patients were transferred to hospitals in Urmia.

One of the most important causalities of this fighting has been the amount of damage sustained to the environment and civilians’ residences. While evacuation of local residents from border towns have brought about the displacement of dozens of citizens in these areas, shelling of mountainous regions have caused forest fires and irreversible damage to the environment and rural farmland alongside the border.

Furthermore, nightly curfew imposed by the Islamic Republic’s military forces has disrupted lives and caused public discontent.

 

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Iraq demands end to Iranian shelling

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Iraq demands end to Iranian shelling

Iraq has called on the Islamic Republic to stop shelling in the Iraqi Kurdistan border region. Iraqi Foreign Minister Hooshyar Zibari has pressed his Iranian counterpart, Ali Akbar Salehi, to end the artillery attacks.

Abdolvahed Gavani, governor of the Chooman region in Iraqi Kurdistan, told Radio Zamaneh: “Up until today, Thursday, Islamic Republic artillery attacks have continued and nearly 12 shells have hit villages in this region and caused great material losses for the people who live there.”

He added that a parliamentary delegation from Iraq has arrived in the region to visit the area and report back to the Iraqi Parliament.

The shelling reportedly started three weeks ago. Conflicts between Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps forces and Pejak, the Kurdish dissident group, have caused dozens of deaths and injuries.

The IRGC has reported dismantling Pejak bases in the region, describing its actions as vital for “creating lasting security and cleansing the border regions of the northwest.”

Iran has said that the Kurdistan Regional Government has Pejak forces with a large area for their use. The KRG has denied the allegations and demanded that Iran end its attacks.

A letter published by 400 Iranian political and social activists also demands an end to artillery attacks on Iraqi Kurdistan, because “they have caused the death of numerous Kurdish guerrillas, Iranian soldiers and local residents.”

The Kurdistan Human Rights Organization has also called on both sides of the conflict to replace military attacks with dialogue.

 

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Mousavi daughters say parents deprived of most basic rights

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Mousavi daughters say parents deprived of most basic rights

GVF — Iran’s former reformist president, Mohammad Khatami, has met with the family of Mir Hossein Mousavi and Zahra Rahnavard, the leaders of Iran’s opposition Green Movement currently in captivity.

According to opposition website Kaleme, on Saturday 16th July, Khatami met with Mousavi’s family including his daughters as well as Rahnavard’s ailing parents.

During the visit, Mousavi’s daughters provided Khatami with the latest developments regarding their parents’ condition and the pressures exerted on the family by the authorities. They also reiterated recent concerns voiced by Rahnavard’s mother about the couple’s state of well-being.

Ehteramossadat Safavi had stated that Mousavi and his spouse were neither under house arrest nor in prison, but rather “taken as hostages.” “Compared to previous visits, this most recent time, I noticed my daughter and son-in-law had suddenly become severely pale and thin. The sudden change in their appearance, their paler skin and weight loss is extremely worrisome,” she had warned in an interview with Kaleme.

In their meeting with the former president, Mousavi’s daughters highlighted the continued threats and unfitting behaviour on the part of Iran’s security forces. They also said that they were rarely allowed to see their parents and that even then, their conversations were severely restricted and closely controlled by cameras and security agents present inside the green couple’s house.

The daughters expressed their discontent over the fact that their parents were being deprived of some of the most limited and basic rights enjoyed by most political prisoners in the country such as regular phone calls leading to increased concerns about their physical health.

Also, Ardeshir Amir-Arjomand, a senior aide to Green Movement leader Mir Hosseib Mousavi, recently expressed his concerns over the well-being of the opposition leader and his wife Zahra Rahnavard, warning that Iran’s “officials must understand they cannot act in any way they wish … We call for medical attention (for Mr Mousavi and Ms Rahnavard) that is specific and according to their will.”

Opposition leaders Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mahdi Karroubi were placed under house arrest along with their wives after calling for protests on 14 February in solidarity with the uprisings of the Arab world.

Since their arrest more than 155 days ago, the Iranian regime has not brought any official charges against the popular opposition figures, violating the men’s human rights as well as the regime’s own laws.

A former foreign minister of the Maldives, Ahmed Shaheed, has been named United Nations human rights investigator on Iran, the first in nearly a decade. The UN Human Rights Council established the independent post of special rapporteur on human rights in Iran on March 24.

 

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Arrest warrant renewed for jailed Iranian actress

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Arrest warrant renewed for jailed Iranian actress

Detained Iranian actress and documentary filmmaker Marzieh Vafamehr appeared in court yesterday, where her arrest warrant was renewed for another month.

The extension was granted to allow for “field investigations,” Shargh newspaper reports.

Vafamehr has been under arrest for more than 20 days. Her family has speculated her arrest may be connected with her leading role in the film My Tehran for Sale by Geranaz Mousavi, the Australian-based Iranian poet/filmmaker.

Vafamehr’s husband, prominent Iranian filmmaker Nasser Taghvayi, told Shargh: “They are planning to acquire further information from the main creators of the film; however, they live in different countries.”

Taghvayi added that he had met with the head of the cinema department of the Ministry of Culture and Guidance and brought to his attention that the film in question had received a permit from the ministry.

He added: “The film was made by Geranaz Mousavi, who sent me a copy of agreements with an Iranian company. The DOP and other actors on the film came to Iran from Australia on a work permit and filmed it all in Tehran.”

Highlighting Iran’s social hardships, the film reportedly depicts the life of an independent artist who, upon meeting a young man at a party, decides to leave the country. Vafamehr reportedly appears in parts of the film with a shaved head and without the head scarf that is mandatory for all women appearing in public in Iran.

 

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Political Prisoner With 10-Year Sentence Is Innocent, Sister Insists

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Political Prisoner With 10-Year Sentence Is Innocent, Sister Insists

Zahra Rahnama, sister of Fatemeh Rahnama, a 50-year-old prisoner of conscience sentenced to 10 years in prison in exile, who is currently spending her sentence inside Sepidar Prison in Ahvaz, told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran that her sister’s charges are fabricated. “Mr. Dolatabadi (the Tehran Prosecutor) once told Fatemeh that when she has served 10 years in prison, her honesty could be proven. What does this mean?! We tried through our lawyer to transfer her to Tehran or Isfahan, but they said that the sentence could not be changed. But is a sentence the words of Koran which cannot be changed? She suffers from cancer and has deep depression. We delivered all her medical files to the Prosecutor’s Office. We are concerned about her physical and psychological state,” Zahra Rahnavard.

“Our mother has been in a coma for several months. You can imagine our state.We have asked through our lawyer several times for her to be allowed to come to furlough for a few days to visit her mother in coma. We have written letters to the Supreme Leader, the Head of the Judiciary, and the Tehran Prosecutor, but it was futile. The Tehran Prosecutor said once that the Case Analyst does not approve the leave, but on what basis does the Case Analyst disapprove of the leave?” added Zahra Rahnama.

Fatemeh Rahnama was arrested on 29 July 2009. Branch 26 of Tehran Revolutionary Court sentenced her to ten years in prison in exile on the charge of “relations with the Mujahedin-e Khalgh Organization” (MEK). On 6 October 2010, Rahnama was transferred from Evin Prison to Sepidar Prison in Ahvaz in order to begin her exile sentence. Rahnama was also arrested during the 1980′s at the age of 19, and sentenced to 3.5 years in prison on the charge of supporting the MEK. She suffers from cancer. Her continued presence in prison despite her illness and unanswered questions about her case review and trial process remain points of criticism by human rights activists.

“We live in Isfahan,” said Zahra Rahnama. “I came from Isfahan today to see the Prosecutor, but they wouldn’t let me in. They said that if the leave request is approved, they would contact us, but we haven’t heard anything yet. My sister is not young. Her mother is in a coma; they should at least let her see her mother for a few days. For the past six months, due to our mother’s illness and our father’s old age, and the long distance, we have not been able to go to Ahvaz to visit with her. We cannot fly there, either, as it is really expensive,” said Fatemeh Rahnama’s sister.

“How could we accept her political charges, when even the case Judge did not approve [this charge]? It may be interesting for you to know that several days after her lower court trial ended, we went to Branch 26 of the Revolutionary Court and the Branch office manager brought my sister’s case file to tell us what the Judge had said. The judge had written that Ms. Rahnama does not have contact with the MEK. The case lawyers told us after the trial session that they were satisfied with the proceedings and that our sister would surely be acquitted of her charge. But a few days later, we read about her ten-year sentence in exile in the media,” the prisoner’s sister said.

“After she was arrested on 29 July 2009, they wrote on official government websites that she had been arrested while setting a motorcycle on fire, whereas she was arrested at her home. Another day, regarding her situation at the Revolutionary Court, they said that my sister had morality problems and this is why she was arrested. Then they said that she has political problems,” Zahra Rahnama added.

“My sister’s question is why she is in prison and she cannot find an answer for this. It is difficult to be placed next to thieves, murderers, drug dealers, and addicts when you don’t belong there. Even so, she is very satisfied with prison authorities. They have given us a telephone number which we can call during business hours and talk to our sister. She is also able to call us several times a week,” said Fatemeh Rahnama’s sister about her conditions inside the Sepidar Prison.

Addressing the Iranian Judiciary autاorities, Zahra Rahnama said: “If anybody can hear us, I would like to ask the Supreme Leader, the Head of the Judiciary, and the Tehran Prosecutor to listen to our pleas just once. We have been screaming for attention for two years. Fatameh Rahnama is innocent. Please review my sister’s case once again.”

 

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Soldier becomes paralyzed after months of torture in base

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Soldier becomes paralyzed after months of torture in base

A conscript soldier in Zahedan has become paralyzed because of ‘physical punishments, 96 hours of solitary cell and being forced to do heavy work” in the base where he was serving.
Farzad Fatahi Naghani was tortured in 2009 because of his 75 day absence.
The Medical Commission and the Medical Examiner have announced that the ‘negligence of the commanders of the relevant military base” are the cause of his paralysis.
This soldier’s parents tend to their 21 year old son everyday one year and seven months after this negligence.
After Farzad became bed-ridden, his insurance and financial support has been cut and his family has not received compensation.
Officials have threatened his father not to pursue this case.
According to Farzad’s father, instead of punishing the person responsible for this incident, he was given a promotion. (Ruyesh News website – Jul. 19, 2011)

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