Responses to Human Rights Abuses in Iran

1. The United Nations Human Rights Council has re-elected Ahmad Shaheed, the special Rapporteur for Human Rights in Iran for another year. This is the third year in which Ahmad Shaheed will be working with human rights in Iran.
2. Alireza Roshan and Mostafa Abdi are activists in protecting the rights of dervishes and personnel of the Majzoobane Noor website. Since 21st of March 2013, these two dervishes have gone on hunger strike in order to protest against the inhumane conditions, violence and abusive behaviour of certain security sections of Evin Prison, in which some lawyers have been imprisoned. They are requesting for these prisoners to be put back into section 350 of Evin Prison and to have their health conditions checked.
3. During the past week, “Bar Association of America” wrote a letter to Ayatollah Khamenei, leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, expressing their concerns about Abdulfattah Soltani, a lawyer who has been imprisoned for the following reasons: Propaganda against the Islamic Republic of Iran, forming a campaign for defending Human Rights, forming a community and planning against the Islamic Republic of Iran, and owning unacceptable wealth. He is accused of being able to do these activities through winning the Nuremberg Human Rights Award.
4. Six Khoozestan prisoners, of which five have been sentenced to death by hanging, and one sentenced to 20 years imprisonment, have gone on hunger strike to protest against the rulings, and the way their case is being handled. They have stated that “They want he world to hear their voices, and wonder why prisoners are being tortured!”
5. Ahmed Shaheed, the UN Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in Iran in his report regarding the critical conditions of religious minorities, has indicated that “roughly one hundred Iranian Bahais citizen are in prisons and the number is increasing. Sunni Muslims, Christians and Dervishes are facing discriminations and harassments. Furthermore, in mid-2010, more than 300 Christians were arrested.
6. On Tuesday 26 March, Shirin Ebadi, the Nobel Peace Prize holder, in a letter to Ahmad Shahid, the UN Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in Iran, requested his attention of the problem of hunger strike of the imprisoned Gonabadi Dervishes.
7. The continuous hunger strike of Kasra Noori and Saleh Moradi, the imprisoned Dervishes in Adel Abad, Shiraz has caused the Multinational Media, CNN to take URGENT ACTION and demand justice and fairness and led them to highlight the support of the general public’s opinion regarding the dire circumstances of the dervishes around the world.
8. Amnesty International on Tuesday 26 March, in a statement referring to the hunger strike of five Iranian Arabs in Karoun Prison, has asked the people of the world to send letters to the Iranian authorities requesting to stop these executions and abuses, and furthermore make medical facilities more readily available.
9. Following the gathering of dervishes outside the Adel Abad Prison, on Wednesday 27 March, security and intelligence forces threatened and intimidated the two Dervish hunger strikers, Saleh Moradi and Kasra Noori by force feeding them with a piece of bread and videoing the event, as a proof. Following this, Ahmadi, the head of the Fars Province Prison confronted the crowd outside the prison and requested the dispersing of the demonstrators by promising to provide the necessary attention to the physical conditions of the two dervishes.
10. During the month of March, Mrs Shirin Ebadi a Nobel Peace Prize winner and Human Right Activist defender began her report by considering the behavior of the Iranian government towards the United Nation’s Human Rights Council Meetings. Mrs Ebadi in her report assessed the behavior of Mr “Mohamad Javad Larijani” as a Representative of Human Rights in Iran as non-diplomatic and rude, she also requested for the Iranian Government to nominate a more polite and suitable person in his place.
11. An organization linked to the United Nations has announced that the arrest and imprisonment of Mr Mohamad Sadiq Kabood-vand, who is the head of the Human Rights Organization for Kurdistan, was decided illegally without any given reason.
12. Mr “Abdolkarim Lahiji” who is the Vice President of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) in Iran, in relation to the extension of Mr. Ahmad Shaheed’s activities stated that “the continuation of the United Nations Rapporteur’s mission for victims of human rights violations, their families and even ourselves is the only way to pressurize the authorities to stop its policy of repression”. He acknowledged that the law of execution is too lenient and by referring to the continous under age execution, indicated that execution not only applies to general crimes but also includes the drug trafficking, harassment and assault. In reference to the imprisoned human rights activists he added “Iran is one of the biggest prisons of human right activists in the world”.

The universities and academics
According to recent reports; Mr Khezr Rasoul Morovat, a Kurdish political prisoner and student activist is said to have been transferred to the city of Urumieh last week, his family have no information on his current location.

Sentences issued: Execution, Flogging, Hand Amputations, Imprisonments and detentions

1. According to a recent report, the execution sentence of Vahid Asghari, the student blogger from Bangalore University in India and political prisoner who is been held in section 350 of Evin Prison, was overturned, by the Supreme Court.
2. Alaeddin Abdallah-Zadeh and Fars Abdallah-Zadeh, two Kurdish civilians from the village of Boroush-khvaran, were summoned to the Information office of the city, and were interrogated for several hours under the charge of cooperating with the opposition party.
3. On 22nd March, Hossein Tayebi, a police commander in the city of Sistan and Baluchestan, stated that in the past two weeks more than 130 Afghan nationals were being detained.
4. Mohmaad Tavakoli, the secretary of the teacher’s union in the city of Kermanshah, was banned from the city for one year, by the order of the education departments of Kermanshah after being charged with encouraging teachers to work less.

The rights of ethnic and religious diversity in Iran

1. Kasra Moradi and Saleh Moradi, the dervishes in Adel-Abad prison in the city of Shiraz, after 64 days of refusing to eat extended their hunger strike for an additional five days including refraining the intake of all liquids. Furthermore, Kasra Noori on Monday the 25th of March fainted due to severe weakness and was transferred to the prison’s clinic by the prison officers.
2. On Monday the 18th of March, Two Baha’i citizens, Mona Amri-Hasari and Roofia Pakzadegan were arrested and after arraignment were transferred to Gorgan prison by the order of Mehraban, the judge on this case.
3. During the past week, 160 religious political Baloochi and Kordish prisoners, in the section 4 of the Rajayi prison in the city of Karaj announced three days of general hunger strike. The security forces have charged these prisoners with insulting the Quran.

The other Human Rights Violations in Iran

1. On Sunday the 24th of March the Evin Prison authorities stopped the transfer of Mansour Naghie-pour to hospital because he refused to wear the prison outfit. Mansour Naghie-pour, who is a political journalist, has been suffering from tooth and gum disease due to lack of vitamins, and as a result he is unable to eat.
2. On the 19th of March Keyvan Samimi, a National Religious Activist in Evin Prison was denied medicine for his medical condition by the Evin Prison authorities, despite them having previously authorized the medicine. Also the ongoing requests for Keyvan Samimi’s temporary leave have been denied.
3. On Monday the18th of March, the security guards of Evin Prison entered and searched the political section of 350 and the political section of the Womens prison.
4. On the 25th of March, Mrs Monv-var Hashemi, the mother of Majid Doory a student and political prisoner, said that she is very worried about the state of her son’s health condition.
5. On 25th of March, Alireza Karami Kheir-abadi currently serving a life sentence in prison, was transferred to the hospital outside of the Rajayi Shahr prison in Karaj due to brain damage. The prison doctors had previously ordered his transfer however the prison authorities’ had delayed taking him to the hospital.
6. Two Kurdish journalists, Khosro Kord-poor and Masoud Kord-poor, the directors of the Mokriyan News Agency were arrested on the 7th and 9th of March by the Mahabad Intelligent Services. Despite the fact that their families have been questioning the Iranian Revolutionary Court, there was no information given about their location and condition.
7. According to reports on 25th of March Karami Kheirabadi who was accused of hijacking an airplane and imprisoned in Rajayi Shahr Prison in the city of Karaj, was transferred to a hospital in Tehran due to an emergency situation. Karami Kheirabadi who had been diagnosed with meningitis is now in coma.
8. Mehdi Khazaly a political prisoner in Iran who’s been on hunger strike for more than 80 days, is suffering from severe low blood pressure and weight loss, He is extremely weak physically and his heart rate has decreased.