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Imprisoned Student, Ali Ajami, Beaten and Battered

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Imprisoned Student, Ali Ajami, Beaten and Battered

WEDNESDAY, 22 JUNE 2011

HRANA News Agency – On the morning of June 22, 2011, for an unknown reason, the assistant warden of Rajai-Shahr Prison in Karaj beat and battered Ali Ajami in the prison’s medical clinic.

According to a report by Human Rights Activists for Democracy in Iran, Ali Ajami who is a leftist activist had gone to the prison hospital for medical care. While there, the Assistant Warden Khadem severely beat and battered Ali Ajami.

Once Ali Ajami returned to his prison cell in Ward 4, Hall 12, other prisoners having seen his bruises and injuries protested by demanding a public apology from the Assistant Warden Khadem. The prisoners also refused to accept their daily food rations.

The current assistant warden in Rajai-Shahr Prison is one of the known interrogators and torturers in this prison. In recent years, he has held various posts such as the director of ward 1, the director of prison’s intelligence agency and most recently the job of assistant warden at Rajai-Shahr Prison.

Some time ago, while two defenseless prisoners, Hussein Qazvini and Godarzi, were being held in isolation cells in Ward 1 of Rajai-Shahr Prison, the Assistant Warden Khadem tortured and beat them such that as a result, he broke their legs.

When the Assistant Warden Khadem was the director of intelligence agency in Rajai-Shahr Prison, he raped and impregnated a female officer. For this reason, he was fired from his job and transferred to Ghezel Hesar Prison for a while.

 

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Siamak Koshi, Student Activist, Expelled

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Siamak Koshi, Student Activist, Expelled

WEDNESDAY, 22 JUNE 2011

HRANA News Agency – Siamak Koshi, a student activist, has been expelled from Tabriz Azad University after his release from prison.

According to a report by Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), the Office of Student Affairs at Tabriz Azad University has sent an official letter to Siamak Koshi to inform him that he has been expelled from this university. No reason was given for his expulsion.

On May 20, 2011, Siamak Koshi, a Mechanical Engineering student, was arrested by Iran’s Intelligence Agency and charged with propaganda against the regime.

 

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Leading Journalist Released But Banned From Working

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Leading Journalist Released But Banned From Working

WEDNESDAY 22 JUNE 2011

Reporters Without Borders hails leading human rights activist and journalist Emadoldin Baghi’s release on 21 June but deplores the fact that he is banned from any kind of political or journalistic activity for the next four years.

He was originally given a six-year prison sentence but it was reduced to one year last July. He had been held since 5 December 2010, when he complied with a summons to present himself to Tehran’s Evin prison (http://en.rsf.org/iran-emadoldin-ba…).

Baghi began a hunger strike on 18 June together with other inmates in Evin prison in protest against human rights violations in Iran. The protest was prompted by journalist Hoda Saber’s death in detention on 11 June (http://en.rsf.org/iran-iranian-auth…) and activist Haleh Salabi’s death in a scuffle at her journalist father’s funeral 10 days before that (http://en.rsf.org/iran-activist-die…).

Aged 48, Baghi has been summoned, convicted or jailed at least 80 times in the course of his career as a journalist.

The head of the Association for the Defence of Prisoners’ Rights, Baghi was awarded the French Republic’s Human Rights Prize in 2005 for his campaign to abolish the death penalty in Iran. He has also received the Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders.

 

6.12.2011 Emadoldin Baghi imprisoned

Emadoldin Baghi, journalist and emblematic figure in the defence of human rights in Iran, began serving a six-year prison sentence on 5 December. Before turning himself in at Evin prison he said in an interview: In fact neither I nor my lawyers know whether the sentences have been upheld, by what court and in front of which judge! All that happened is that I received a phone call telling me to give myself up at the prison! … All this bears no relation to law and justice”.

According to information obtained by Reporters Without Borders, several other journalists are in exactly the same situation as Emadoldin Baghi: under order to present themselves at the prison certain of being arrested.

With 27 journalists, nine netizens and one media contributor already in jail, Iran is now the world’s third largest prison for journalists.

 

4 December 2010 – Emadoldin Baghi threatened with imprisonment

Reporters Without Borders is extremely concerned about the plight of journalist Emadoldin Baghi, and emblematic figure in the defence of human rights in Iran, who on 27 November 2010 received a summons ordering him to present himself at Evin jail by 5 December.

We are extremely worried about the summons which will probably lead to his arrest. Baghi is currently under medical treatment and his state of health is fragile. We call on European states which have opened negotiations with Iran on nuclear issues to pay careful attention to the case of this passionate defender of freedom of expression.

Baghi was arrested on 28 December 2009, the day after opposition demonstrations on 27 December 2009, in a roundup orchestrated by the Ministry of Intelligence and the Revolutionary Guards. He was sentenced in July 2010, by the 15th chamber of the revolutionary court to one year in prison and to a five year ban on working as a journalist. He was also sentenced by the 26th chamber of the revolutionary court to six years in prison for having appeared on the Persian service of the BBC along with dissident religious leader Hossein Ali Montazeri, who died in December.

Emadoldin Baghi, 48, has been summonsed, sentenced and imprisoned more than 80 times over the past ten years. The president of the Association for the defence of prisoners’rights, was awarded The Human Rights Prize of the French Republic in 2005, for his work in support of the abolition of the death penalty in Iran. He also received the Martin Ennals prize for his commitment to human rights.

 

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Lebanon bans screening of Iran film ‘Green Days’

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Lebanon bans screening of Iran film ‘Green Days’

06/22/2011

Lebanese authorities have banned screening of the Iranian film “Green Days,” which deals with protests against the 2009 re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, an organiser said on Tuesday.

“We received a call yesterday from General Security informing us they had withdrawn the licence allowing us to screen the film,” Colette Naufal, organiser of the Beirut International Film Festival, told AFP.

“When we asked them why, we were told: ‘This is not our decision, we are only carrying out orders.”

The film was to be screened at the Beirut International Film Festival’s “Forbidden Films Festival”, which showcases previously censored films from June 22 to June 26.

“Green Days” by Iranian film-maker Hana Makhmalbaf, 22, shows raw footage of the violence that erupted when security forces cracked down on protests following Iran’s disputed 2009 presidential election.

Makhamalbaf is the daughter of Mohsen Makhamalbaf, who is close to leading Iranian opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi whose green-ribbon-wearing supporters gained international attention for protesting against what they said was a rigged election.

A high-ranking official in Lebanon’s former government, who had been following the case, said the decision to ban the film came following an appeal by the Iranian ambassador.

“Ambassador Ghadanfar Rokenabadi informed Lebanese authorities that screening the film would be considered an attack on Iranian sovereignty and requested it be banned,” the official told AFP, asking not to be identified.

The Iranian embassy had no immediate comment.

Lebanese authorities already banned the screening of “Green Days” at a festival last October that coincided with a visit to Beirut by Ahmadinejad.

After nearly five months of wrangling, Prime Minister Najib Mikati last week formed a government dominated by an alliance led by the Iranian- and Syrian-backed Hezbollah movement, leaving the Saudi- and Western-backed bloc that led the previous government out in the cold.

 

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Iranian Female Photojournalist Missing

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Iranian Female Photojournalist Missing

June 22, 2011

A female sports photojournalist who had campaigned for Iranian women to be allowed to attend men’s soccer games is missing amid reports she has been taken into custody in Tehran, RFE/RL’s Radio Farda reports.

Maryam Majd, 24, was supposed to go to Duesseldorf on June 17 to prepare for the women’s soccer World Cup in Germany and to work on a photo project with Petra Landers, a former German soccer player.

But in a letter subsequently sent to the German Foreign Ministry and the Iranian Embassy in Berlin, Landers says Majd never arrived.

Landers said Majd called her on June 17 saying she was about to get on the flight, but the airline has since confirmed she never boarded.

Meanwhile, an Iran-based source close to Majd told Radio Farda on June 21 that “four men, most likely from the Intelligence Ministry, went to Majd’s father’s house on June 16 and arrested her after searching her room.”

The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, added that her family said the men also took some of Majd’s personal belongings with them. Her current whereabouts are unknown.

The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran said Majd’s family has so far refrained from talking to the media about their daughter’s situation.

Majd is a member of a campaign that supports Iranian women being allowed to attend men’s soccer matches, which is currently forbidden in Iran.

She has worked with the banned magazine “Zanan” (“Women), the Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA), and the sports daily “Tamasha.”

 

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EU agrees to extend Syria sanctions to include some Iranians

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EU agrees to extend Syria sanctions to include some Iranians

Wednesday, 22 June 2011

EU states reached a political agreement on Wednesday to extend sanctions against Syria to four military-linked entities and seven individuals, including three Iranians, linked to suppression of dissent, EU diplomats said.

In May, the European Union added Syrian President Bashar Al Assad and other senior officials to a list of Syrians banned from travelling to the EU and subject to asset freezes.

“There is a political agreement on extending the list,” a EU diplomat said, adding that the new sanctions would take effect on Friday, once all 27 EU states have written on Thursday to give their formal approval.

The Iranians are accused of “providing military equipment and support to help the regime suppress protests in Syria,” a EU diplomat said on condition of anonymity.

The identities of those targeted by the sanctions will be revealed when the EU publishes its Official Journal on Friday.

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem denied Wednesday that Syria had received any assistance from ally Iran or Lebanon’s militant group Hezbollah in putting down the protests.

He also said Syria regarded EU sanctions as a “war” against Damascus.

EU foreign ministers had vowed during a meeting on Monday to beef up the sanctions on Syria as they cast doubt on Mr. Assad’s latest offer of change, with Britain saying he should “reform or step aside.”

At the same time, several European nations have joined Washington in pushing for a UN Security Council resolution condemning the crackdown, but Russia has warned it would veto such a move.

Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt said this week it was vital for the UN Security Council “to express the outrage of the world.”

“The silence of the Security Council until now can be seen as an indirect tolerance of what is going on in Syria and that is unacceptable,” he said.

German counterpart Guido Westerwelle Moscow’s UN position “goes in the wrong direction.”

More than 1,300 civilians have been killed and some 10,000 people arrested, according to Syrian rights groups, in the crackdown that has seen troops dispatched to crush revolt in cities across the Middle Eastern country.

 

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Two prisoners on hunger strike receive treatment

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Two prisoners on hunger strike receive treatment

Wed, 06/22/2011

Two of the 12 Iranian political prisoners on a hunger strike in Evin Prison were taken to the infirmary, an opposition website reports

Kaleme reports that on the fifth day of their hunger strike, Abdollah Momeni and Abolfazl Ghadiani were sent to the infirmary after a sharp decline in their health.

The 12 political prisoners began a hunger strike to protest the recent deaths of two other political prisoners, Haleh Sahabi and Reza Hoda Saber, and the authorities’ alleged role in their demise.

Haleh Sahabi died during a furlough from prison when security forces overran her father’s funeral.

Reza Hoda Saber began a hunger strike to protest Sahabi’s death and died 10 days later. His fellow inmates say he was badly beaten on the eighth day of his strike, and the prison authorities are also accused of delaying his transfer to hospital after the onset of his symptoms.

The authorities deny any wrongdoing and claim both prisoners died naturally from heart attacks.

Abdollah Momeni was arrested in the protests that sprang up following the disputed re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2009. He is a prominent student activist and active in the “Free Citizens Election Headquarters” supporting opposition leader Mehdi Karroubi.

In the aftermath of the 2009 election protests many political activists were arrested. Momeni was sentence to almost five years in prison. Karroubi, one of the chief challengers of Ahmadinejad’s victory, is currently under house arrest with his wife.

Abolfazl Ghadiani, at 65, is reportedly the oldest political prisoner in Evin Prison and he suffers from heart complications.

Ghadiani is also a prominent reformist and was arrested during the Ashura Day protests against the 2009 presidential election.

The other 10 political prisoners on hunger strike at Evin are also prominent political activists and journalists, and in the past week several Iranian political figures and human rights advocates have urged them to end their strike over concern for their health.

 

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Hossein Ronaghi Maleki transferred back to Evin prison before ending his medical treatment

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Hossein Ronaghi Maleki transferred back to Evin prison before ending his medical treatment
22 , June , 2011

Hossein Ronagi Maleki was transferred from the hospital back to Evin prison despite his medical treatment not having been completed.

This prisoner’s family told Human Rights House of Iran that their son is suffering from severe kidney disease that could result in kidney failure. Despite being told of the danger, security agents ordered that Hossein be transferred back to Evin prison before the end of his medical treatment.

Added to his kidney disease, Hossein is suffering from stones in his gallbladder. According to the attending physicians, Hossein has already lost 80% of the function in one kidney and 20% in the other, and if he continues to be held in prison without medical attention, he will end up loosing his kidneys.

While he was in the hospital and receiving medical attention Hossein’s hands and feet were shackled to the bed.

Hossein Ronaghi Maleki has been suffering from kidney disease and in desperate need of medical attention with hospital care for months. The first time he was finally allowed to seek medical attention it took four months for him to be transferred to a hospital. This time his treatment was postponed for one month until he was taken to the hospital, then transferred back to prison before ending his treatment.

This blogger and human rights activist was arrested on December 13, 2009 and spent 10 months in solitary confinement in Evin prison. He received a 15-year prison sentence that was upheld by the Tehran appeals court. He is now serving his 15-year sentence in ward 350 of Evin prison and to date he has not had one day off on furlough.

Per orders of the attending physicians, it is imperative that Hossein receive medical attention at a medical facility outside of prison.

 

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Iran: We Will Block Entry of UN Human Rights Representative

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Iran: We Will Block Entry of UN Human Rights Representative

June 22nd, 2011

The United Nations Human Rights Commission in Geneva has issued a special resolution in which it appointed a correspondent from the Maldives to investigate the human rights situation in Iran. This appointment, thanks to the efforts of human rights activists, comes soon after the deaths of Haleh Sahabi and Hoda Saberi.

A few days later, Zohreh Elahiyan, Head of the Islamic Republic Parliament’s Committee on Human Rights, said in an interview with “Nasim” regarding this UN appointment: “We will block the entry of the UN Human Rights representative since the anti-Iran resolution of the UN Human Rights Commission was put together by American and Zionist lobbies. It has no legal basis.” In explaining that the “anti-human rights” resolution passed against Iran was based on mistakes and political motivations, Zohreh Elahiyan continued: “We will accept case UN representatives. Cooperation is important for us, yet when the special representative is appointed with political protest, we are excused from accepting. This is the first reaction in opposing the appointment and dispatch of a UN representative in Iran.”

It remains to be seen how Islamic Republic authorities will react in the future and what will be the UN’s reaction to such opposition.

 

 

 

Baha’i and Muslim Citizens Arrested

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Baha’i and Muslim Citizens Arrested

Tuesday 21 June 2011

HRANA News Agency – On the evening of June 20, 2011, six citizens from the city of Esfahan were arrested.

According to the Committee of Human Rights Reporters, a few hours ago, six individuals including three Baha’i citizens were arrested in Esfahan. The Baha’i citizens have been identified to be Katie Nik-a’in, Thamin Emani and Zhayna Enayati.

It has also been reported that Thamin Emani is only sixteen years old. Security forces raided Thamin Emani’s house without showing a warrant and begin to beat and insult the residents when they demanded to see a court order. Thamin Emani was handcuffed after this violent confrontation. The charges or the whereabouts of those arrested are still unknown.

On June 20, 2011, another Baha’i citizen, Dari Amri, was also arrested in the city of Mashhad. Security forces raided Dari Amri’s house and seized her computer and camera. Additionally, two cell phones were also confiscated. One of the mobiles belonged to a guest who was present in the house during the raid. The security forces also searched the house of Dari Amri’s father-in-law.

On June 1, 2011, Anisa Dehghani, a Baha’i citizen, was arrested when she traveled from Esfahan to Mashhad.

During the winter of 2011, fifteen Baha’i citizens were arrested in Tehran, Esfahan, Mashhad, Kerman and Samnan. These individuals are all children’s rights activists and the members of a charity organization dedicated to helping children orphaned after the 2003 earthquake in Bam. During one of the arrests which took place in Kerman, three Muslim citizens who also helped this charity organization were detained.

In the last few weeks, fifteen other individuals were arrested in relation to a provisional university established for Baha’i citizens who are denied the opportunity to study at Iran’s higher education institutes. Farhad Amir, Dari Amri’s brother, and Zohreh Nik-a’in, Katie Nik-a’in’s sister, were amongst those detained for a few months and then released.

 

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