Responses to Human Rights abuses in Iran

1. On Thursday the 28th of March, the human rights officer at the German Foreign Ministry, Mr. Markus Löning, published a statement expressing his concerns on the health and condition of Kasra Noori, and Saleh Moradi, two Gonabadi dervishes, who are imprisoned and have been on hunger strike for over 80 days. He has requested the Islamic Republic of Iran to stop the Repression of minority Dervishes through means such as arresting, discrimination, the demolition of places of worship and preventing religious ceremonies.
Furthermore, he requested the fundamental rights of all citizens to be obeyed, and respect for all citizens regardless of their religion and ethnicity, and for the immediate release of prisoners who have been detained solely because of their religious orientations.
2. On Sunday the 31st of March, the mother of political prisoner,
Gholam-Reza Khosravi Savad-Jani, sent two separate letters, addressed to the United Nation Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon and the United Nations Special Rapporteur for human rights in Iran, Ahmad Shaheed, thanking them for their efforts, but informing them that the measures taken so far have not been successful.
3. On Thursday 28th of March, Mohammad-Sadigh Kaboudvand wrote a letter from prison, requesting more efficient actions to be carried out in order to preserve human rights in Iran. Mr Mohammad-Sadigh Kaboudvand has stated that there isn’t enough information available regarding the recent report by Ahmad Shaheed, the United nation Special Rapporteur for human rights in Iran, and added that this report is highly valuable in the sense that it shows how widespread and systematic the human rights violations taking place in Iran are.
4. On Tuesday 2nd of April, the Stockholm branch of the International Organisation to Preserve Human Rights in Iran, held a street protest in front of the Iranian Embassy in Stockholm to support Dervishs’ lawyers and journalists who are in solitary confinement in Tehran’s Evin Prison, and Shiraz’s Adel Abad Prison.

Universities and academics

1. The security services of the Payame Noor University in the city of Orumie have threatened Kurdish students, that if they do not co-operate with the security agencies of the city, they will be expelled from the university and jailed.
2. According to the reports, Jahan-Allah Karam a Philosophy Professor at the University of Payame Noor in the city of Mahaabad Kurdistan has left the country and settled in turkey due to the extreme pressure placed upon him by the security forces. He had also been involved in several different student publications and in Human Right activities for some time.
3. Last week, the Mother and Brother of the prisoner Misagh Yazdan Nejaad, a student studying Interpreting who was arrested in February 2012, have been put under pressure by the security intelligent service agents in order to give a TV interview, however, the mother: Mrs Akram Alsadat Sanjari has refused to do so. As a result she has been threatened with the death penalty by the court for showing resistance in front of the forces.
4. Mr Kamran Daneshjoo who is the Secretary of the ‘Ministry of Science, Research and Technology of Iran’, in response to critics of gender segregation in Universities has stated the following: “In order for us to have Islamic Universities, therefore the shape, appearance and morals within the University must be based on the Islamic rules.”

Workers and vulnerable communities in Iran

1. On Sunday the 31st of March, Behnam Khoda-dadi, a labour activist and member of the ‘Construction of Electrical employees of Esfahan’ was fired due to a lecture he gave on the 20th of March to Labour Activists in the Taheri camp hall in Kangaan.
2. In the past week, the ‘Co-ordinating Committee to help form workers’ Organizations’ published a statement asking the families of the arrested labour activists and other groups, to protest opposite the Revolutionary Court in Sanandaj city on the 30th and 31st of March, against the imprisonment of labour activists and to demand their release.
3. According to the reports received by a new employer and shareholder of the Petrochemical Company in Kurdistan, Mr Kabeleh Soori has fired 10 of the company’s experienced employees. Also on Friday the 1st of March, the employees of the named company stopped working for 12 days due to unpaid wages; however the strike ended without any positive result for the employees.

The Sentences: Execution Flogging, amputation, imprisonment and custody

1. On Wednesday the 27th of March, 8 people were arrested in the city of Paveh. Motassem Shafayi, Mohammed Negari, Jahanbakhsh Ahmadi, Ghaneh Hatami, Aras Hatami, Babak Abbasi, Pedram Ghaderian and Govaran Bahrami, were transferred to the Dizelabad Prison in the city of Kermanshah.
2. On Monday the 1st of April, Ghazi Heydari, a political activist and an Arabic speaker, who is currently spending his 10 years sentence in the Karoon Prison in Ahvaz, was sentenced to an additional 5 years imprisonment.
3. On Sunday the 31 of March, Abraham Nuri, an English Language Translation student and a Civil Rights activist for Azerbaijan, was summoned to court by the Judiciary of Ahar city.
4. As the 8 year anniversary of the ‘protest of Arab citizens in the city of Khuzestan, against a letter written to the president of the Islamic Republic of Iran’ approaches, more than 160 people across the state of Khuzestan have been arrested.
5. On Wednesday the 3rd of April, Two Civil Right Activists from Azerbaijan named Mehdi Kookhian and Abbas Valizadeh were prosecuted in branch 1 of the Revolutionary court of Maraagheh. They were sentenced to 1 year and 8 years imprisonment, charged with Propaganda against the Islamic Republic, Islamic blasphemy and insulting the Leaders of the government.

Religious rights and Ethnic Diversity in Iran

1. On Saturday 29th of March 2013, families of the Dervish prisoner’s stated that “in the Evin prison of Tehran and Adel Abad Prison of Shiraz the Ministry of Intelligence Services have asked the imprisoned Dervishes to declare that they are not Dervish, and nor are they related to the ‘Nematolahei Gonabadi Dervishes’, and that they have acted independently.” At the moment 11 members of the ‘Nematolahei Gonabadi Dervishes’ including lawyers and managers of the website ‘Majzobane Noor’ are imprisoned in the Evin Prison and Adel Abad Prison.
2. On Sunday the 31st of March, Kasra Nouri and Saleh Moradi who were on the 75th day of their hunger strike were transferred to the Detention office by the Security forces. They remained there for several hours of interrogation, beatings and solitary confinement in an attempt to break their hunger strike.However, after a group of dervishes gathered in front of the Intelligence Office Detention building, they were transferred back to Adel Abad prison.
3. Recently there has been pressure put on Bahai prisoners in Semnan City by the Intelligent Security Service and other officials to prevent the efforts of the families of the prisoners working towards their freedom. Furthermore Baha’i prisoners in Semnan are not allowed to use the prison yard, libraries, clubs, stores or telephone and are kept separate from the rest of the prisoners

Media and Cyberspace

1. More than 75 Kurdish journalists, political and civil rights activists have published a statement, demanding the release of the detained journalists in Kurdistan, Iran.
2. Saeid Matinpour, author and journalist from city of Zanjan, after four years of being in section 350 of Evin Prison, has been deprived of his minimum prisoner rights.
Matinpour is a graduate in philosophy from Tehran University and he is a member of weekly magazine Yarpagh and Moje Bidari, an activist and a blogger, he charges are for travelling to Turkey and communicating with foreigners outside of Iran.
3. On Monday, the 1st of April, the Information police announced, 20 instructions, about increasing the security of user data and therefore the internet service managers such as the (café internets) are required to take action within the next 15 days from the date of announcement of these 20 notifications.
4. From Wednesday, the 3th of April the male and female Television actors and presenters have to be segregate in a live TV program.

Other human rights violations

1. Mehdi Khazali a political prisoner who was arrested on the 30th of October 2012 for no given reason is in his 90th day of hunger strike.
Currently he is being kept in the section 209 of Evin Prison, a cell which is only 2 by 2 meters. Despite all the efforts made, the ministry of intelligent services have not come to a conclusion to release him on bail.
2. On the 31st of March security officers where at multiple locations check points in the City of Salmas, threatening and harassing all citizens in an excuse to search for illegal goods and human traffickers.
3. The health of Millions of Iranians is at risk due to lack of international standards of distributing foods and fruits. It must be noted that the Iranian Ministry of Health have not shown any action towards this problem.
4. Mohammad Taghi Mesbah Yazdi known as a Clergy and a Psychologist has announced that Music is the most important factor in road accident in Iran. On the 28th of March this Clergy said, “Listening to Dance music has a destructive effect on people”. Other human rights violations
5. Ayatolh Hassan Mamduhi, a member of the Clergy association in Qom and the Council of Experts, stated that to use the mobile telecom company Raytel will increase corruption in today’s society of Iran. Raytel in one of the first mobil phone operators in Iran which has introduced a very high speed internet access.
6. Mehdi Farahi Shandis, a Labour and Teachers Rights actives who is serving a three year sentence in Evin prison, has spent more then two month in a solitary confinement. He has been accused of insulting the supreme leader and disrupting the order in the society.
7. On the 20st of March the first day of Persian New Year, Meer Hussein Musavi and his wife Zahra Rahnavard were allowed to visit their daughters, but they were not allowed to visit or make any telephone contact with the rest of their families.
8. Mehdi Kokhian, a political prisoner in Maragh Prison is suffering from kidney failure and is in a critical condition. The prison authorities are not willing to give him any medical treatment.
9. On Monday the 1st of April, Seyed Ziya Navabi was put under pressure by the Intelligence Service of Ahvaz to deny the statement he wrote about Mohammad Ali Omoouri who is a Civil Rights Activist and has been sentenced to execution.
10. The security forces did not allow the funeral of Mr Sadre Haj Seyed Javad to take place who past away in Tehran Aban Hospital. He was of one the oldest Iranian Human Rights and Political Activists.
11. On Tuesday the 2nd of April, Mitra Pour-shajari, the daughter of Mohammad Reza Pour-shajari who is in prison because of his faith, stated that; her father has desperately needed medical treatment for the past 6 months, however the prison authorities have not taken any action towards his request for treatment.
12. Sheer Koo Moarefi, a Kurdish political prisoner who has been sentenced to death and has asked the Sannandaj Amnesty Commissioner to review his case has not received any response from them and is still on death row.
13. On the 21st of March, 10 Kurdish citizens were arrested and sent to the Orumiye central prison for 1 month by the Orumiye Intelligent Service.
They where charged with co-operating with Kurdish Parties who are in opposition to the Islamic Republic of Iran.
14. According to the latest statistics released by the police and anti-drug campaign, 1,369kg of drugs are discovered everyday in Iran. Also on average every hour 27 cases of dangerous drug traffickers are formed by the police forces.
15. The Iranian Police forces Fata have announced that: ‘any sports prediction or SMS competition will be considered as gambling and will be treated according to the Islamic punishment laws.’
16. The Human rights activist, Mansour Naghi Poure who is detained in ward 350 of Evin Prison has been denied from going on leave, despite all the promises made by officials.
17. The mother of Sattar Beheshti, a blogger who died inside of a prison, has sent a Nowrooz (Persian New year) message to fellow Iranians, calling for immediate attention to her son’s murder case which has been closed by the authorities.