Responses to Human Rights Abuses in Iran

1. Ali Motahari reported the secrete listening of all parliamentarians of Iran by the security forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran using their mobile phones. This MP added that the security institutions have become sensitive towards the activities of his office, and have planned twice to install a listening device in this office.
2. The complaint letter of an imprisoned priest, Behnam Irani was sent to the high commissioner for human rights and other human rights organisations regarding the brutal attack on his house and the two servants of the church by the Ministry of Intelligence officials in Karaj. He did this in order to spread the message of the ‘Human Rights and Democracy Activists in Iran’ between organisations and the media.
3. During the past week, Isabel Doran, the representative of the European parliament said that we must use the opportunity of Geneva’s agreement for Iran to engage in demanding the respect for human rights. She demanded that the conditions for dialogue with Iran based on the principles of human rights should be provided as soon as possible.

Women’s rights

1. During the past week, Mariam Shafi-ee Pour, in the women’s section of Evin prison, has been frequently suffering from heart palpitations to the point where she became unconscious and her health deteriorated to such an extent that she had to be transferred to the prison clinic. Despite the prison’s medical supervision, and the fact that this student activist requires immediate MRI scan, the prison authorities have not taken any action in this regard.

Universities and academics

1. Students of the University of Arts formed a collective protest against the present conditions in the university. In this protest, which took place in the afternoon of Monday 16th December 2013, the students chanted slogans demanding response, or the withdrawal of Saeed Kashan-Falah, the head of the University of Arts.
2. According to the reports received, two starred students in an interview with the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran indicated that despite the official announcements on the students who were expelled from university to be allowed to return back to their education, it has been nearly four months since the requests of the students have been left unanswered.
3. Orumieh University officials in an illegal act have disregarded the order of the commission of special cases of West Azarbaijan on letting Farshad Soltani an activist of the university to continue his education.
4. On Tuesday 17th December, students of the University of Amir-Kabir were visited by three members of Monitoring Unit of Ministry of Education, when the students tried to show the visitors their objectives towards the style of management of the university by gathering, carrying placards and chanting slogans.

Workers and vulnerable communities

1. On Monday 16 December, Hamadan’s Labour House Secretary, reported the closure of Steel Mill Factory in Asad Abad and consequently, redundancy of more than 250 workers due to lack of financial resources in production of raw materials.
2. Last week, Mohamad Esmaeil Doshman Ziari, labour activist in the province of Bushehr reported payment of 1 month out of the 3 months delayed payments of 450 workers of Deepwater Technology Company (dot) due to poor economic conditions and labour market recession.

Sentences: death, flogging, amputation, imprisonment and detention

1. According to the reports received, on Thursday 12th December 2013, in Ghichili village of Miandoab, during the memorial ceremony of Khanali Motiyi who was murdered in the protests of 12 December 1945, at least 5 people were arrested. The names of those arrested were Daryoush Andalibyan, Yousef Mokhtari, Javad Soudbar, Habib Monafi Azar and Mokhtar Ebrahimi, were arrested by the security forces.
2. A person accused of drug trafficking was been hanged in Gochsaran Prison. According to Afshin Nareki, head of Gochsaran Prison, “this person was hanged for transporting 67 kilograms of drugs.
3. On Saturday 14th December 2013, a 44 year old prisoner accused of drug trafficking was hanged in the central prison of Rasht. This person was hanged for buying and maintaining 85.3 kg of heroin and 17 kg of opium.
4. On Thursday 12th December 2013, a prisoner called Afshin Darvazi was hanged in the Bam Prison. Afshin Darvazi was arrested and sentenced to death three years ago on charges of drug trafficking.
5. Hujatulislam Sadeghi, the public prosecutor of Qazvin province announced that “a 46 year old person convicted of drug trafficking crack-drug, was hanged in the central prison of Ghazvin”.
6. Four prisoners accused of murder, were hanged in the central prison of Urumieh. Furthermore, nearly 170 prisoners accused of murder are waiting to be hanged.
7. In the past week, a 24 year old man named Behzad Khalili Eigdir was hanged in central prison of Oromie city by the prison authorities. He was from Ashnavieh city and charged with ”premeditated murder”.
9. On Tuesday 17th and Wednesday 18th at least two prisoners charged with premeditated murder were hanged in the central prison of Zahedan.
8. At dawn on Wednesday, 18th December, Iraj Nassiri, Ahmad Shakouri and Genghis Salehi, three prisoners who were convicted of murder were hanged in the central prison of Orumieh.

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

1. The court upheld the sentence and the confiscation of land belonging to Bahais in Sanandaj, which was used as a cemetery. The cemetery was destroyed by bulldozers. It is worth mentioning that this is the third Bahai cemetery in Sanandaj that has been seized and violated since the revolution.
2. Priest Rouiroo Avanessian, the official Iranian Churches pastors is in prison, severely ill and requires intensive care. The pastor of the Armenian Church has been accused of “acting against national security and propaganda against the Islamic Republic of Iran”.
３.In the past week, Mokhtar Rahimi, Shahram Ahmadi, Kaveh Vysi, Kaveh Sharifi, Taleb Maleki and Behroz Shah Nazari, six Sunni prisoners in ward 350 of Evin prison for over four months, have been banned from meeting their families.
4. Ten of the Bakhtiari nomads of Masjed Soleiman in Khuzestan province were arrested by the police during the burial of a well-known person because they fired shoots in the air. In the Bakhtiari tribes of Khuzestan it is customary to fire bullets into the air using hunting guns at the funeral of prominent figures.
5. The state of six prisoners confined in the prison of Qzelhesar in city of Karajwhich who have been on strike for 46 days is unknown. This is a continuation of their hunger strike and they are suffering from extreme physical weakness.

Press releases and virtual space

1. Mohammad Amin Ekrami and Mehdi Rayshahri Tangstani, two Face book activists, were arrested by intelligence ministry officials.
Other human rights violations
1. Ahmad Daneshpour Moghadam, who has olsroz colitis disease as well as a mental disease of acute rate, is suffering due to the lack of specialist medical attention and the refusal of medical treatment outside the prison. He has suffered severe weight loss of roughly 40kg.
2. An Iranian official said that the Islamic Republic has six million people in Iran who have an addiction problem. Moreover, Rasol-e Khazari, who was addressing the Congress of Knowledge on Drugs noted: “the number of women addicts has doubled and the average age of addicts has come down.”
3. The representative of Ahwaz stated in the House of Representatives that “there has been a dramatic increase in blood diseases in Khuzestan Province” and in regard to the shortness of breath of thousands of residence in the province said that the main cause is “the failure to replace the filters for the oil and gas burners due to the imposed international sanctions”.
4. Nahid Rahmani and Ziba SadeghZadeh, the mother and wife of Payman Arefi a political Prisoner in Masjed Soleyman Prison, died as a result of car accident after visiting Payman.
5. The head of Academic Association of Social Workers in Iran, announced the outbreak of a dangerous disease called “genital warts”. According to him, nearly 1 million people have been affected in Iran and at the moment there is no cure for it.