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Three Kurds in Prison for Helping Iranian Filmmaker Saber Kaka Hasan

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Three Kurds in Prison for Helping Iranian Filmmaker Saber Kaka Hasan

HRANA News Agency – Although one year has passed since three young Kurdish men, Alireza Yaghoobi, Siavash Dehghani, and Mohsen Alimaradi, have been arrested on charges of helping the Iranian Kurdish filmmaker Saber Kaka Hasan, their current condition remains unknown.

According to a report by Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), a member of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard close to one of the prisoners’ families has said, “Making a documentary was an excuse used by Saber Kaka Hasan to photograph several secret military installations in remote forests of northern Iran. These three individuals have been charged with helping him.”

This member of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard added, “Since the contents of this film are very sensitive and a threat to the country’s national security, the families of these prisoners must find a way to return Saber Kaka Hasan to Iran and deliver him to the Intelligence Agency in exchange for their children.”

Alireza Yaghoobi, Siavash Dehghani, and Mohsen Alimaradi had no role in making the film or photographing the sites and only accompanied Saber Kaka Hasan as guides familiar with the region.

These prisoners have been charged with acting against the national security, reporting for foreign news agencies and spying for Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government and the US forces.

An informed source has told HRANA, “The Iranian security forces have contacted Siavash Dehghani’s family to give his father the news of Siavash’s suicide and the whereabouts of his grave. However, when the family went to that location, they were told to consider themselves forewarned and to take the matter seriously.”

Since these three prisoners don’t have an attorney and their families are not given any information, nothing is known about their cases.

 

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144-page Report on Government Violations

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144-page Report on Government Violations

A number of Majlis representatives have protested the decision of the presiding board of Iran’s parliament to remove the motion to summon the president to respond to questions from the agenda of the body. In the meantime, Constitution Article 90 committee of the Majlis is currently investigating the 30 violations that Ahmadinejad’s administration is being accused of. This includes a report on 144 violations allegedly perpetrated by presidential aides Mashai and Baghai. Any of these reports can result in launching impeachment procedures against Ahmadinejad.

Questions for Ahmadinejad: Ask them After the Collapse of the United States

Ali Motahari, a principlist Majlis deputy with a record of criticism against Ahmadinejad, protested the mooting of the call for Ahmadinejad to respond to the questions raised by representatives and called the act a sell out for the Majlis. “Please inform us when is a suitable time to ask questions of the president and when not. For example you can say that when the US and Israel have been destroyed is a suitable time. Or, when foreign media have been shut. The mooting of the resolution summoning the president to respond to specific questions was done because of conditions in the country. In the past, we postponed this for months because of the launching of the law on targeted subsidies. When the president had decided to refrain participating in official forums including the cabinet, we waited again and did not present our questions to the presiding board,” Motahari said.

The draft resolution to summon the president to the Majlis to respond to questions raised by MPs is being pursued by Ali Motahari, and it has been through various ups and downs since the resolution. While it had earlier been announced that some 100 deputies had signed a call for the summons and submitted their questions to the presiding board, the issue never made it to the agenda of the parliament. Mostafa Kooakbian also criticized the removal of the questions-resolution from the agenda of the Majlis and called on the spokesperson of the presiding board to provide an explanation regarding the deputies who had withdrawn their request for the summons, and announce their names.

Pressures on Majlis representatives to proceed with questions for the president, requiring his presence in the parliament, come at a time when Fazel Mousavi, a member of the Majlis committee on Article 90 of the Constitution told Etemad newspaper that the committee had confirmed some 30 violations raised against the president by 12 deputies and that a report had detailed the breaches on these.

He further said that the report on Ahmadinejad’s violations and a report on differences that came up over the dismissal of the intelligence minister will be read out on the Majlis floor. If a positive vote emerges on the report, then impeachment of the president must take place.

But this is not the only clash that the Majlis is having with Ahmadinejad since the end of its summer recess. When it was announced that Ahmadinejad’s violations would be investigated by the Majlis, an MP told Fars news agency that “the 33-page documented report on political and financial violations committed by the president’s chief of staff Esfandiar Rahim Mashai and the first vice-president Hamid Bagahi had also been submitted to Article 90 committee of the Majlis for investigation.” Hassan Nowroozi also announced that he was pursuing his complaint against these two individuals in the Article 90 committee.

Mohammad Karamirad, another MP had earlier talked about a 100-page complaint against Baghai and Mashai that had been submitted to Article 90 committee.

The growing pressures on the president and his aides have not produced a very active public response from the two senior aides. With these pressures changing weight every day, it is still not clear whether the president will be summoned to respond to questions by parliamentarians or not.

 

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IRGC says pursuit of Pejak forces continues

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IRGC says pursuit of Pejak forces continues

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) has announced that the pursuit and punishment of the Kurdish militant group Pejak is still ongoing in the northwestern border region of Iran and Iraq.

Mohammad Pakpour, the head of the IRGC ground forces, told Mehr News Agency that dozens of Pejak forces have been killed in the Sardasht border region.

Shirzad Kamangar, a Pejak spokesman, told AFP on Sunday that the group has suffered a number of casualties.

Later, the Islamic Republic News Agency cited “an informed source” in Sardasht to report that Pejak’s regional headquarters has been destroyed, and five Pejak members and one Revolutionary Guards member were killed in the operation.

Kamangar denied that Pejak’s base had been taken over by the IRGC forces.

The IRGC commander insisted, however, that its forces had “decisively” confronted Pejak and, destroying their base and killing dozens of their members.

Aladdein Boroujerdi, who heads Iranian Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, told Fars News Agency: “One of the duties of the IRGC, especially in the Western regions, in view of the crimes committed by Pejak organization with the support of the Untied States, is to confront this terrorist group.”

In the past three weeks, the border regions of Iran and Kurdistan have been subjected to artillery attack by Islamic Republic forces.

Massoud Barezani, the head of Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), has condemned Iran’s artillery attacks and warned that they may create tensions between the two governments.

Iranian authorities claim the KRG has given Pejak a 300-acre region without Baghdad`s approval.

General Jabbar Yavar, a spokesman for KRG security forces, told Radio Zamaneh that those allegations are baseless.

On Wednesday, the KRG is sending a panel to the border region in order to prepare a report on the IRGC attacks to the KRG Parliament.

 

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Seven Political Prisoners Given Short Furlough; Hundreds More Remain in Prison

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Seven Political Prisoners Given Short Furlough; Hundreds More Remain in Prison

Seven prisoners in Evin Prison’s Ward 350 were allowed short furlough on 16 July on for the observance of a religious holiday. The prisoners were: Bahareh Hedayat; Mahdieh Golroo; Behzad Nabavi; Mohsen Mirdamadi; Feizollah Arabsorkhi; Abdollah Ramezanzadeh; Javad Emam; and Massoud Lavasani. No other political prisoners were allowed furlough from Rajaee Shahr Prison or prisons in other cities, however. Presently hundreds of political prisoners are inside Evin Prison.

Also on 16 July, Maryam Majd, a photojournalist arrested on 20 June, was released on bail until her court date. Majd was arrested one day before she was scheduled to take a trip to Germany to cover the Women’s World Cup.

A large group of Iranian political prisoners who were arrested following the 2009 presidential election have not been allowed even a single day of leave since their arrest.  Hossein Ronaghi Maleki, a blogger who is in critical health inside Evin Prison, Ahmad Zeidabadi, Massoud Bastani, Bahman Ahmadi Amouee, Fatemeh Rahnama, Zia Nabavi, Abdollah Momeni, and numerous other prisoners, some of whom have critical health conditions and have been recommended medical leaves by prison doctors, all remain in prison.

Since the arrests began in the aftermath of the 2009 election, family members of political prisoners that have requested leave for their imprisoned kin have been met with silence from Tehran’s Prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi.

 

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Rashid Akhkandi, Political Prisoner Sentenced to Death in Critical Condition

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Rashid Akhkandi, Political Prisoner Sentenced to Death in Critical Condition

 

HRANA- Political prisoner Rashid Akhkandi, sentenced to death, has been place under high security by prison officials. He is being deprived of medicines needed to treat his illnesses and meetings with his family.

According to information gathered by HRANA reporters, Rashid Akhkandi was sentenced to death by the revolutionary court for being a “mohareb” or “waging war against God”. He is being deprived of treatment for his illnesses which include sever eye pains and an infection in his kidneys.

 

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Iranian authorities arrest government critic again

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Iranian authorities arrest government critic again

 

Mehdi Khazali, an critic of the Islamic Republic and the head of Hayat Publishing, was arrested yesterday and taken to an unknown location, Tahavolesabz website reports.

Mehdi Khazali is the son of ultra-conservative cleric Abolghassem Khazali, a member of Iran’s Assembly of Experts. Last year Abloghassem Khazali publicly disowned his son and condemned his critical views of the Islamic Republic government.

The son responded by saying: “Can Jihad be abandoned by a father’s orders? The issue is eliminating oppression and tyranny, which is incumbent upon all of us, and a father’s permission does not figure as a condition in this matter.”

Mehdi Khazali was previously arrested in September 2010 and released after a month in custody. He had also been arrested last July and released on $20,000 bail.

Mehdi Khazali tried to run as Qom representative in the parliamentary elections of 2007 but was disqualified because he had made allegations of vote fraud in the 9th parliamentary elections. He was also disqualified from joining the Governing Board of College of Physicians but was later elected as the head of the Tehran Media Co-op board of directors.

On his personal weblog, Khazali has been highly critical of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s administration over the past two years.

He has described the Iranian president as an “attention freak” and predicted that one day he will even “stand against the leader” in his quest for fame.

 

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Iranian journalist summoned to serve out jail sentence

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Iranian journalist summoned to serve out jail sentence

Mashallah Shamsolvaezin, the deputy head of the Iranian Journalists Association and a spokesman for the Press Freedom Society, has been summoned by Iranian prison authorities to serve out his 16-month sentence.

The Human Rights Reporters Committee says authorities have warned Shamsolvaezin’s mother that she will forfeit the bail money she put up for his release if he does not report to prison within 20 days.

Mashallah Shamsolvaezin was sentenced in a preliminary court to 16 months in prison for “propaganda against the Islamic Republic regime and insulting the president.” The prison summons has been issued even though he has not been formally informed of the appellate court’s decision in his case.

Shamsolvaezin’s defence attorney, Mohammad Seifzadeh, a founding member of the Human Rights Defenders Centre in Iran, was detained and banned from practicing law. Therefore, Shamsolvaezin did not receive a proper defence.

Mashallah Shamsolvaezin was arrested in December of 2009 at his home in Tehran and released on bail after two and a half months.

Since the crackdown on protests that followed the 2009 presidential election, journalists repeatedly have been the target of arrests and persecution in Iran.

 

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Female political prisoner severely tortured in prison

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Female political prisoner severely tortured in prison

According to reports, political prisoner Arezu Qebal Azraqash has been detained for more than 4 years in various prisons in Iran and was recently transferred to the Shahre Rey Prison.

This 26 year old political prisoner was born in Mahabad and was arrested in 2007 in the border area in Piranshahr. She was transferred to a solitary cell in the Orumieh Intelligence Agency and was subjected to severe torture for six months in this prison by intelligence agents. Arezu was subjected to sleep deprivation, toilet deprivation, was kept in a standing position for hours which usually resulted in fainting spells, and was subjected to violent physical beatings where she was punched and kicked or beaten with batons which led to injuries in her reproductive organs and severe bleeding. She received 27 stiches for this injury. She was transferred from Orumieh Prison at night and was abused and subjected to a mock execution from which resulted in a 24 hour coma.
This political prisoner was unable to move for two months because of injuries she sustained in her back and neck…
Arezu Qebal Azraqash was tried in 2008 by the 101st branch of the Orumieh Revolutionary Court where she was sentenced to three years of prison on charges of ‘espionage for Kurdistan and Iraqi Intelligence Agencies and cooperating with outsiders’. Despite the fact that she has served her three year prison term, she is still kept in prison in dire conditions. (Human Rights and Democracy Activists in Iran – Jul. 17, 2011)

 

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Political Prisoners Denied Outside Recreation

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Political Prisoners Denied Outside Recreation

HRANA News Agency – In an effort to increase pressure on political prisoners, since Sunday, July 17, 2011, outside recreation time has been cancelled in Rajai-Shahr Prison.

According to a report by Jaras News, prison officials have not allowed political prisoners to go to the prison yard for fresh air since yesterday.In Rajai-Shahr Prison, political prisoners were previously given four hours every day for outside recreation contrary to the Department of Corrections’ regulations giving inmates the right to have access to fresh air all day.

In response to this decision, political prisoners refused to participate in the daily roll call. It has also been reported that living conditions inside Rajai-Shahr Prison are very poor. Political prisoners suffer from poor nutrition and have no access to the prison telephone.

 

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Iran ‘takes control’ of Kurdish camps in Iraq: Guards

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Iran ‘takes control’ of Kurdish camps in Iraq: Guards

By AFP

TEHRAN (AFP) – Iran has taken “full control” of three camps of an Iranian Kurdish rebel movement inside neighbouring Iraq, a commander of the elite Revolutionary Guards told the official IRNA news agency on Monday.

However, the claims were disputed by a top Iraqi Kurdish security official, and come a week after a senior Iranian army official said Tehran reserved the right to attack bases of the Party of Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK) in Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region.

“All the three camps on Iraqi soil that were backing the terrorist group have fallen under our control and we have full control of the area,” said Colonel Delavar Ranjbarzadeh, Guards commander in the northwestern Iran border town of Sardasht.

He added that operations launched on Saturday inside Iraq were still continuing in other areas but he did not elaborate.

Meanwhile Brigadier General Mohammad Pakpour, commander of the Guards ground forces, insisted that “operations to chase and punish the terrorists” will continue, state television’s website reported.

Pakpour called on both the government in Baghdad and the autonomous Kurdistan to prevent PJAK’s “presence and operations” near the Iranian border.

Ranjbarzadeh said one member of the Revolutionary Guards was killed in the fighting, three others wounded and that “many anti-revolutionary and PJAK terrorist members were (also) killed.”

On Sunday, IRNA quoted an unnamed source in Sardasht as saying “five PJAK members were killed in the clashes.”

“Among those killed is the deputy head of Marvan camp,” Ranjbarzadeh said, calling it the “main camp for the PJAK terrorist group” and adding that 30 PJAK members had lived there for the past four years.

Jabbar Yawar, the top official in the Iraqi Kurdish ministry responsible for regional peshmerga security forces, called Iran’s claim to have seized camps inside Iraq “incorrect.”

“All the combat (between the Iranian army and PJAK) has been inside Iranian territory,” he told AFP in the Iraqi Kurdish regional capital Arbil.

On Sunday, a PJAK spokesman told AFP Iranian forces had suffered several casualties in fighting near the Banjaween area of Iraqi Kurdistan’s Sulaimaniyah province, and that two PJAK fighters had died.

On July 11, IRNA quoted a senior Iranian army official as saying Tehran reserves the right to attack PJAK bases within Iraq.

“The terrorists will not be allowed to take sanctuary in Iraq’s territory and attack Iran with the support of America and the Zionist regime,” the official said. “Action will be taken against these terrorists.”

Iranian forces regularly shell border districts of Iraq’s Kurdish region, targeting PJAK bases.

 

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