Responses to Human Rights abuses in Iran

1. Due to the continued imprisonment and critical states of the dervishes, more than 365 Iranian activists, human rights activists and academic figures, have published a statement in order to draw the international attention to the critical state of the dervishes and demand their immediate release.
2. According to the report by Iran Human Rights (IHR), and Together Against the Death Penalty (Ensemble contre la peine de mort, (ECPM)) which was published on Wednesday the 3rd of April, 580 executions by hanging have been carried out in 2012 alone, which is the most death sentences carried out over the past 15 years in Iran.
3. On Monday the 8th of April a group of workers, labour activists and members of the coordination committee, gathered in front of the “Justice and Judiciary building” in Sanandaj, Kurdistan, in order to protest once more in support of the committee members who were arrested for helping form the workers’ organisations. The protest was requested by the families of the detainees, in a hope to have their cases taken care of.
4. On Saturday, the 13th of April, the Stockholm branch of The International Organisation to Preserve Human Rights in Iran carried out a demonstration in Sergel’s square, Stockholm in support of the Gonabadi dervish lawyers and journalists who are in solitary confinement within Evin prison in Tehran, and Adel-Abad prison in Shiraz.
5. On Monday, the 8th of April, Mr Ali Mozaffari, head of the Adel Abad prison authority in Shiraz, resigned. On the last day of Mr Mozaffari’s presence in the prison, he visited KasraNoori, and SalehMoradi, the dervish prisoners in the Green section. Mr Mozaffari made it clear that he did his best to pass on all the information about complaints and requests to the judicial authorities, and that the disregarding of their wishes had been due to the negligence and carelessness of the judicial authorities. At the end of his visit, Mr Mozaffari held KasraNoori and SalehMoradi in his arms and asked for forgiveness.
6. Amnesty International has stated that Iran has the highest number of executions by hanging in the Middle East. And after China, with a population of one billion and three hundred million; Iran has the second highest number of executions by hanging in the world. According to this report, Amnesty International says, last year at least 314 people were executed in Iran.
7. Some of the supporters of Dr Mehdi Khaz-Ali, including friends and members of the House of Literati, have announced in a statement that on the dawn of Monday, the 9th of April, they started their own hunger strike marking the hundredth day that Dr Mehdi Khaz-Ali has been on hunger strike, in order to support him.
8. On Friday the 5th of April, a music concert was held in Germany, Stuttgart, for the support of KasraNoori and SalehMoradi who are currently on a hunger strike.
9. On Tuesday the 9th of April, the Danish newspaper, “politiken” announced that in order to protest against the death sentences that take place in Iran, the Danish government has decided to stop their contributions to the anti-drug program in Iran. It is said that in the past two years, Denmark has given an annual amount of five million dollars to help with the anti-drug program in Iran.

Women’s Rights

1. During the past week, Neda Shahsavari, the only female contestant in Iran for the table tennis Olympics was forced to miss her flight to the Asian cup championship by the overseas council. This was solely due to the fact that she was the only female to travel from Iran to the Asian cup championship.
2., Sahar Beheshti, the sister of Sattar Beheshti, has made the following statement: “The Iranian forces publically stop me on the streets and threaten to take me to (Kahrizak) prison. They talk about Taraneh Moosavi who was raped and killed in the 2009 demonstrations. Up until now, we are still under pressure. They want us to stay quiet and not talk. When my mother has interviews, I receive threatening phone calls, asking why my mother is doing these interviews, and that I should be happy that I was able to go see my brothers grave this week” (I should be happy that they didn’t stop me).

Workers and vulnerable communities

1. Alireza Malakooti, a member of the Emam Port Petrochemical Directors Contractual and contract Union has sent a letter of complaint to the ‘court of Adminstrative Justice of the trade unions act’ to protest against the wage rate in 2013.
2. During the past week, the security forces are putting more and more pressure on Pedram Nasrollahi, who is a labour activist, and a member of the coordinating committee, because of his activity in coordinating organisations to help workers.
3. By giving the position of project manager to a person named Mahdavian, the employers of Motabar company are strongly exploiting their workers and any protest from the workers have been answered by their dismissal from work. The Zhave dam’s workers have also been fired on several occasions and now face unemployment.
4. On Tuesday the 9th of April “Majid P” a former employee of one of the contracting companies in Raja, committed suicide by hanging himself in a field near the ‘steam generating department.’
5. It has been reported that the lack of laws and mismanagement of the officials in the city of Salmas, has led to employers taking advantage of this situation and abusing the day labourers.

The Sentences: Execution, Flogging, amputation, imprisonment and custody

1. On Saturday the 6th of April, it was confirmed by the Supreme Court that three people have been sentenced to death by hanging. They were accused of armed robbery in the private lands nearby the Tafihan and Mahmood Abad villages of the “Fars” province.

2. Ali Reza Hashemi Sanjani, an activist for teachers’ rights as well as a member of the “Central Council of Teachers” in Iran, has been summoned to court. He is accused of “Propaganda against the Government” and gathering collusion.
3. On Sunday the 17th of April, Hossein Kiani, a political activist, was arrested in the city of Amol. The relatives of this activist believe that he was arrested due to his “Facebook” activities.
4. Two brothers named Mohammad Sadegh Najafi and Mojtaba Najafi were summoned to the 5th Branch of the Abuzar Court, in the Aria-shahr part of Tehran. These two brothers were accused of setting up a website in order to support the “Iranian Mourning Mothers” and the Political prisoners.
5. A young man named Arash was sentenced to death by the judge of the Keifari Court in Tehran. He was charged with murdering another young man called Mohammad in a fight which took place on Thursday the 10th of January 2013.

The rights of ethnic and religious diversity in Iran

1. Two Gonabadi Darvishes named Kasra Nouri and Saleh Moradi have been on hunger strike for more than 85 days. They are not willing to give up their hunger strike until all the dervish laywer prisoners are transferred from Section 209 to Section 350 of Evin Prison. They believe hunger strike is the only measure they can take in order to improve the conditions for the Darvish lawyer prisoners who have been suffering in the Evin Prison of Tehran for the past 19 months.

Social media and cyber space

1. On Sunday the 7th of April, Mr Mohammad Reza Tagh-vafard the director of the “Khorshid Newspaper” was prosecuted due to the comments he made about the death of Sattar Beheshti,
2. On Sunday the 24th of March 2013, Mr Reza Akvanian, a Poet, blogger and former member of the Human Rights Activists in Iran was arrested. One of his relatives stated that “Reza was severely beaten up in the Information Office to such an extent that bruises and marks were clearly visible on his body”
3. A journalist named Siamak Ghaderi was sentenced to 4 years imprisonment by the Revolutionary Court for attending the protests against the government during the 2009 presidential elections, and for posing a threat to national security.

Other human rights violations

1. Abdollah Momeni, a political activist who has spent three years in prison and is suffering from kidney problems, has been denied permission for sick leave. He has been arrested several times in the past, and physically and mentally tortured due to his political activities in his university.
2. With over a month of detention Khosro and Masoud Karam-pour, have not been able to contact their family and remain in a state of uncertainty about their situation.
3. Habibullah Rigi-Nejad- Shoraki a political prisoner in the central prison of Zahedan city has been suffering from severe kidney problems for more than 6 weeks, however the authorities have not taken any action towards treating him.
4. At a meeting in the parliament of Tehran on Tuesday 11th of April, Ali Motahari referred to the case of the death of Sattar Beheshti, who died inside prison, stating that the authorities involved in his case had made a mistake and that a sincere apology to the family of Sattar Beheshti would have improved the situation.
5. According to recent reports Mr Mohammad Bagher-Alavi, a member of the freedom movement, who was arrested 3 weeks ago, has only been allowed one brief telephone call with his family. During his time in prison he has been interrogated and kept in solitary confinement for twelve days.
6. On Saturday the 16th of March Hootan Dolati, a member of jebhe meli was, arrested by security agents at his house, and his situation remains uncertain
7. Amir Khusraw Dalir-sany, a national Religious rights activist has been in prison for four years however he has been denied any leave during this time.
8. Two managers and heads of section 240 of Evin prison, Javad Mumani and Abasi visited Mehdi Farahi Shandis, one of political prisoner in his individual cell and demanded and ordered him to sign a repentance and apology letter of his actions and what he had been propagating, but due to Mr Shandis reluctance he was beaten up with cable and baton and consequently his right elbow of was broken.
9. Despite the fact that Mr Mohammad Safe Zadeh, imprisoned solicitor at Rajayei prison had served his two year sentence, the authority refused to release him and instead started making a new case against him.
10. On Saturday the 6 of April, Ali Reza Karami Khyrabadi, a political prisoner passed away in Imam’s Hospital after ten days of being in coma, whilst his hands and feet were tightened to his bed. Prior to this he had refused to go to hospital with prison uniform and did not backed down despite prison guard’s insistence, but in the following day he lost consciousness and was taken to hospital by ambulance and eventually due to infection of brain passed away.
11. According to annual statistic report of the Ministry of Health and Medicine issued on Friday 5 April, tenth of thousands of people in the country have died of alcohol poisoning in the passed year.
12. On Tuesday the 9th April Mohammad Reza Mardani the head of the recruitment of the Ministry of Education claimed that 16000 experts have been attracted in the passed year and none of them were rejected due to political situation, but some were rejected for security reasons.
13. On Monday the 8th of April, Hassan Mirzakhan, who was wounded in the aftermath of the presidential election in 2009, died in Tehran’s Taleghani hospital following serious health deterioration.
14. Students from the city of Abadan, in the west of Iran, are currently studying in makeshift tents and in old buildings rather than in schools. Parviz Jayervandi, the director of the education system in Abadan stated that ‘In order for us to reach the current demand we require 20 more schools to be built in the city”.
15. On Sunday the 7th of April, Mehdi Koukhiyan, an activist who is in Maragheh prison in the north west of Iran, has gone on Hunger strike due to lack of treatment for his kidney stones. As a result of this he has been moved to the quarantine section.
16. Mohammad Ghavi-del, who is one of the political prisoners in section 350 of Evin Prison, has been there for nearly 3 years and despite his old age, he has been deprived of the right to take leave.
17. Ali Moezzi, who is a political prisoner in Evin prison and suffering from reoccuring bladder cancer was deprived of any treatment and also prohibited from any visitors for the past 6 months, by the order of judge Salavati.