Responses to Human Rights Abuses in Iran

1. On Sunday 22nd September 2013, a group of families of offenders who have been accused of drug trafficking, and have been sentenced to death, gathered in front of the parliament and demanded for an alternative punishment for these offenders. Iran’s high rate of executions passed by the judicial system has been criticised by the human rights organizations.
2. At 12am on the 20th September 2013, Omid Shah-Moradi, a political activist, imprisoned in section 350 of Evin prison, started his hunger strike in protest against the lack of response by officials about his accusations, not allowing legal representation in administrative and financial affairs to follow up on his case, as well as family problems that have occurred.
3. During the past week, whilst expressing their concern over reports of the imminent executions in Iran of four Kurdish Sunni minorities, Amnesty International urged the senior officials in the Islamic Republic of Iran to halt their executions.
4. Kasra Noori and Saleh Moradi, defenders of the rights of Gonabadi Dervishes, whilst writing another complaint letter, stated that in addition to Mohammad-Reza Shahbazi being a major cause of conflict against the Dervishes in Kavar city, one other clergyman called Alireza Ghaemi was also involved in the conflict in Kavar city that collaborated with Shahbazi.
5. Molana Abdol-Hamid, Zahedan’s Friday prayer leader wrote a letter to Seyyed Ali Khamenei, the leader of Iran, regarding the death sentence of 26 Kurdish Sunni youths who are in Rajaei Shahr prison of Karaj, and asked him for his intervention on this issue.
6. Furthermore, Ahmad Ronaghi-Maleki, the father of Hossein Ronaghi-Maleki, wrote a new letter to ask for the agreement of the Tehran prosecutor, Jafari Dolat-Abadi, regarding his son’s medical leave due to his poor condition in prison. Despite the legal medical report concerning Hossein not being able to tolerate imprisonment, Khodabakhshi, Deputy Prosecutor in Evin prison, has disagreed with Hossein’s medical leave request.

Workers and vulnerable communities

1. AlirezaAshtian, the chairman of the Islamic council in Zanjan province, announced that 240 workers of the Zanjan lead and zinc factory lost their jobs due to the factory going bankrupt.
2. In recent weeks, 800 naval shipbuilding industrial corporation workers have been dismissed from the factory, Sadra. The labour workers in Bushehr has informed that the remaining 700 workers will also be dismissed bringing the total number of dismissals in the Sadra factory to 1500.

The Sentences: Execution Flogging, amputation, imprisonment and custody

1. On Thursday 19 September, Mohammad Rasoulof, director and award winner of the Cannes and Telluride Film Festival, was stopped at passport control on his return to Iran. His personal identifications, documents and laptop were all seized from him.
Although it was announced in the media that political prisoners from section 350 would be released, in reality, only two were released while 9 new prisoners were added. The names of the new prisoners are the following: Arvin Sedaghat Kish, (sentenced to three years), ShahramYarmand, Mehdi Tarakh, EisaMalakMahmoudi, MortezaVijheh, Hamid Babaee, (detained temporarily), Abbas Omidi, (sentenced to 2 years), Mohammad SajjadAhmadi, (sentenced to 6 month), Akbar Amini, (because of going through 5 years imprisonment and temporarily detainment related to the new file).
3. Last week, 8 people who were accused of drug trafficking were hanged in the central prison of Yazd. Their deaths were implemented after the approval of the attorney general.
4 years ago a youngster at the age of 14, who was charged with premeditated murder after reaching the age of 18, was executed on Monday 23 September in Karezoon.
5. Reports suggests that on Tuesday 24 September 2013, four people accused of “rape” were hanged in Kerman Prison.
6. Behnam Chegini, a member of President Hassan Roohani’s election campaign in the city of Arak and a human right activist was arrested last week. The reason for his arrest according to his relatives includes political/human right activism, his writings on Facebook and also some remarks about the rights of women.
7. On Tuesday 24 September 2013, Saeed Nayimi, a member of the general Alumni Association of Iran, was transferred to Tabriz Prison charged with propaganda against the Islamic Republic of Iran.
8. A 50 years old man, who had been accused of murder approximately 7 years ago, was hanged in the central prison of Mashad.
9. During the past week, three prisoners who had been previously sentenced to death were hanged in the central prison of Urumie city.
10. The death sentence for a Kurdish citizen, who is one of the defendants of Mass Graves of Afghan, Pakestani and Iranian refugees, was approved by the Supreme Court in the border of Iran and Turkey.

The rights of the followers of ethnic minorities – prisoners of conscience in Iran

1. Last week a 75 years old Baha’i citizen named Behzad Shokoohi, attempted to start a petition in order for the Agriculture ministry to respond to his demands. In response, he was summoned in, where he was beaten due to orders from the governor of Tehran.
2. Vali Doroodi, a Kurdish political prisoner in Yazd Central Prison has been deprived of having prison break for the past 17 years. This Kurdish political prisoner was arrested on the basis of “cooperating with the Kurdish democratic party”. Despite the fact that Vali Doroodi has spent more than half of his sentence period in prison, he is still deprived of his right to leave.
3. The last two weeks has seen the telephone lines in the Ebrat section of the Adelabad Prison in Shiraz, disconnected by order of the prison authorities. There are a total of 10 religious prisoners in this section of the prison, including 5 Gonabadi dervishes, 3 Christian converts and 2 Baha’is. The authorities have announced that telephone lines will remain suspended until the court day of the 5 Gonabadi dervishes.
4. On Wednesday 25 September, Two Sunnis prisoners of Ghazal-Hesar Prison who have been sentenced to death were transferred to the solitary confinement. The counter-insurgency guards are also intending to transfer the remaining four prisoners to the Solitary Confinement.
5. Furthermore, a Kurdish journalist named GHasemAhmadi, a citizen of Mahabad has been sentenced to two years imprisonment by the appeal court of Uroomiyeh city.

Press and cyberspace

1. On Thursday 19 September, Ahmad-Reza Najdad, an author, researcher and a web logger was arrested while leaving the country from the international airport in Tehran city.
2.Badrosadat Mofidi, a member of journalists association announced that “it has been almost three weeks since this association has wrote a letter to the three ministers of information, employment and guidance demanded for the cancellation of banned activity, however neither of the ministers, so far have responded to the requests.

Other human rights violations

1. It has been reported that Mr Majed Mohammadi Moine, the reporter of monthly and daily newspapers Bayan and Salam respectively, had requested a short leave of absence from prison due to his mother’s spinal problems. However, the prosecutor prohibited his request.
2. Asgar Mahmudian, political prisoners who is serving a six year prison sentence in the city of Semnan, has requested permission to go to hospital for a serious condition.
3. Mohammed-Saber Malek-Raisey, a young Baloch political prisoner serving a 15 year sentence in prison, has not been allowed to call and meet with his family for the past 16 months.
4. Peyman Aref, a political activist and member of Jep-heye Meli-ye Iran has submitted his last defence to the Evin prison court where he is charged with acting against national security.
5. According to reports on Tuesday 24 September, even though the 4-year prison term of Mohammad-Reza Mageseh who was charged for his involvement in the contested presidential elections 4 years ago has ended, the judicial officials have refused to release him.
6. On Wednesday 25 of September, the Iranian parliament passed a bill under which an adopted child will be allowed to marry his or her foster parents.
7. Reza Malek, a former official of the ministry of information who has been in prison for a long time due to exposure, is suffering from spinal problems. It is likely that he may become permanently paralysed.
8. A family member of Maryam Shafiee, a student activist currently in prison, was threatened by the court due to the disclosure of information regarding her.