Author: admin-hr

Peaceful Demonstrations Turned Violent in Azerbaijan

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Ethnic Minorities, Freedom of Expression
Motahari Hospital, Urmia

HRANA News Agency – Peaceful demonstrations by Azerbaijani citizens turned violent when Iranian security forces interfered with a gathering to save Lake Urmia.

According to a report by Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), anti-riot police in the city of Tabriz shot tear gas directly at the crowd and injured a number of the protestors.

Oddly enough, plain cloth agents broke the windows of shops and public phone booths in Tabriz.Previously, this behavior had also been observed multiple times in Tehran.

Eye-witnesses have reported that the clashes are still on-going in front of the Constitution House of Tabriz (Khaneh Mashrouteh).Demonstrators are shouting slogans such as “Rise up and cry out Azerbaijan. Give life back to Lake Urmia” and “Lake Urmia dies. Congress orders its demise.”During the clashes with the police, a large number of citizens have been injured.

While the clashes in the city of Urmia are spreading to Ykaneyan Bazaar, Agh Dash and Shapour Gate, the number of those injured are significantly increasing.

HRANA correspondents report that Iranian security forces have stormed the Motahari Hospital to arrest those injured during street clashes.

 

Maryam Majd in Critical Condition; No News From Mahnaz Mohammadi

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Prisoners
Mahnaz Mohammadi, Maryam Majd

HRANA News Agency – Although fifteen days has passed since Mahnaz Mohammadi was detained, the documentary filmmaker and women’s rights activist has not been able to contact her family by phone.

According to a report by Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), despite widespread objections to Mahnaz Mohammadi continued incarceration and lack of news from her, Iranian security and judicial officials have remained silent about the reason behind her arrest and have denied her the right to call her family.

Maryam Majd, a photo-journalist and women’s rights activist, contacted her family by phone yesterday.It has been reported that she was in a poor psychological condition at the time of her contact.According to a well informed source, Maryam Majd suffers from kidney problems and has not been able to eat anything since last Friday.Additionally, Maryam Majd has both heart and kidney diseases for which she was hospitalized for some time before her arrest.

Furthermore, because of Mahnaz Mohammadi’s health problems, concerns and worries surrounding her imprisonment and unknown condition continue to increase.An informed source close to the documentary filmmaker has said, “Mahnaz suffers from a disease similar to Multiple Sclerosis and must take medication such as Cortisone daily.If she doesn’t take her medication, she will have extreme muscular pain and local paralysis.Since there has been no news of her during this time, we are worried whether she has had access to her medication.”

On June 17, 2011, Maryam Majd was arrested in her family home when she intended to leave the country to cover the FIFA Women’s World Cup in Germany.

Sources close to Maryam Majd and Mahnaz Mohammadi have reported that their case files have been given to the investigators at Park Shahr Court.Unlike that of other political and social activists, Maryam Majd and Mahnaz Mohammadi’s cases are not being handled by the Revolutionary Court and the Evin Court.

During the last few weeks, amongst widespread objections to these activists’ arrests, a number of human rights organizations, trade unions and foreign governments have requested Maryam Majd and Mahnaz Mohammadi’s immediate and unconditional release from prison.

 

Contract Teachers Rally at Parliament House

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Other
Seyyed Kazem Mousavi

HRANA News Agency – A group of contract teachers gathered this morning in front of the parliament building in Tehran to appeal to their representatives for permanent employment in the Ministry of Education.

 

According to a report by Jame Jam Online, demonstrators who were mostly female teachers with temporary contracts protested in front of the north entrance of the Iranian parliament to ask their representatives to take the necessary measures towards resolving teachers’ problems.  Additionally, some of the contract teachers gathered in a sit-in protest at a street corner close to the east entrance of the building and objected to the policies preventing them from being employed by the Ministry of Education as civil service teachers.

 

Seyyed Kazem Mousavi, the House Representative from Ardabil Province [Azerbaijan, Iran] and a member of the House Committee on Education and Research, appeared amongst the protestors and spoke with them.

 

 

 

 

Iran’s Guantánamo Bay: the cover-up won’t work

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Prisoners

Faced with undeniable evidence of a scandal, one solution is to blame others. But picking out a few expendable scapegoats from your own side – and punishing them – often works better. That is the tactic adopted by the Iranian regime in trying to shrug off revelations of atrocities in the Kahrizak detention centre.
This week an Iranian military court convicted and sentenced to death two officials who had been accused of torturing and killing three protesters in the centre during the aftermath of last year’s disputed presidential election.

 

Continue reading “Iran’s Guantánamo Bay: the cover-up won’t work”

Prisoner Raped in Rajaiee Shahr Prison

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Prisoners

HRANA – Bahram Tasviri Khiabani, a prisoner held in Rajaiee Shahr prison in the city of Karaj, was raped with a baton by two IRGC members (“Pasdar”) guarding the ward.
Based on reports received by HRANA, a regular prisoner in Rajaiee Shahr prison named Bahram Tasviri Khiabani was placed in solitary confinement as punishment for unknown reasons. Due to the lengthy duration of his isolation and prison officials’ refusal to allow him to contact his family, Mr. Khiabani attempted self-immolation in his solitary cell.
Upon seeing the attempted self-immolation on security monitors, prison guards and Pasdars rescued him from death. Thereafter, they began beating him with fire extinguishers, breaking his hands and legs. They then transferred him to another solitary cell where they raped him with a baton.
Bahram was held in solitary confinement for another month before he was transferred to the prison clinic to receive treatment for the severe infection in his broken leg. After receiving minor medical treatment, Bahram was transferred to the prison’s general ward.
Mr. Khiabani’s family have launched a complaint, which has led to the perpetrators of these heinous crimes to increase their pressures and threats against this prisoner.
 

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Three prisoners will be hanged publicly today

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Executions
Rajaie Shahr, Varamin

HRANA News Agency – Thursday morning, January 17th, three prisoners will be hanged in Pakdasht in public.

According to a report by Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), it supposed to hanging 3 prisoners in Pakdasht in public on Thursday morning, January 17th.

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85 years old Baha’i prisoner banned of visit and phone call

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Prisoners
Mohammad Hussein Nakha'i

HRANA News Agency – 85 years old Baha’i citizen, Mohammad Hussein Nakha’i, sentenced to 3 years in prison, is banned of visit and phone call with no reason.
According to a report by Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), Elderly Baha’i citizen, imprisoned from May 2012 in Birjand Prison, Mohammad Hussein Nakha’i, is being banned of visit and phone call by judiciary authorities with no reason.
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Younes Aghayan on Hunger Strike in Solitary Confinement

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Prisoners
Mehdi Ghassemzadeh, Younes Aghayan

HRANA News Agency –  Younes Aghayan, ethnic prisoner sentenced to death who was transferred from Mahabad prison to solitary confinement in Urmia prison on Wednesday, December 26, 2012, is on hunger strike from that day.
According to a report by Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), Younes Aghayan, a follower of the Yari faith (Ahl-e Haq), ethnic prisoner who is sentenced to death, was transferred from Mahabad prison to solitary confinement in Urmia prison. He is on hunger strike from the day he was transferred to solitary confinement. There is fear of his execution.
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Shahoo Hosseini, teacher and journalist fired from his work

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Ethnic Minorities
Shahoo Hosseini

HRANA News Agency – Shahoo Hosseini, political activist, journalist, teacher, Civic and Cultural activist was fired from Education Ministry.
According to a report by Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), Shahoo Hosseini, political activist, journalist, teacher, Civic and Cultural activist and student of M.A. in political science from Mahabad was fired from Education Ministry.
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Amnesty: Iran must immediately release prisoner of conscience Arzhang Davoodi

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Prisoners
Arzhang Davoodi, Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui

Iranian writer Arzhang Davoodi
HRANA News Agency –Writer Arzhang Davoodi, who is facing fresh charges after being imprisoned in Iran for nearly nine years, must be released immediately and unconditionally, Amnesty International said.

Arzhang Davoodi, 60, who has been imprisoned since October 2003, faces a court hearing before Branch 15 of the Revolutionary Court of Tehran on 28 August on a new charge of “enmity against God” (moharebeh), which carries a possible death sentence.

The new charge is believed to be linked to his peaceful political activism and writings, including the release of an audio recording in which he called for “freedom and democracy”.

Therecorded messagewas widely distributed on the internet after the Confederation for Iranian Students (CIS), a 7,000-membership independent, pro-western student movement, released the recording in a conference in the United States of America. 

Arzhang Davoodi is feared to have been tortured and ill-treated since being transferred on 27 June to Section 209 of Tehran’s Evin Prison which is believed to be under the control of the Ministry of Intelligence.

“Not only is Arzhang Davoodi held solely for peacefully exercising his rights to freedom of expression and association in his writings and political activism, but he now faces fresh charges after being in jail for nearly nine years,” said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Amnesty International’s Deputy Middle East and North Africa Director.

“He is a prisoner of conscience and the Iranian authorities must release him immediately and unconditionally.

“The intolerance of dissent of the Iranian authorities is such that they continue to harass Arzhang Davoodi and his family although he is already in jail.

“The Iranian authorities must also protect him from torture or other ill-treatment and provide him with all necessary medical care and allow him immediate access to his family and his lawyer.”

Davoodi has served his sentence in a number of different prisons in Iran since his detention began, including at Bandar Abbas Prison, Hormozgan Prison, 1,500 km south of his home in Tehran; Reja’i Shahr Prison and Evin Prison – including Section 209.

He has also spent lengthy periods of time in solitary confinement in Evin Prison since his arrest and has had no contact with his family since his transfer to Section 209.

Davoodi was arrested in October 2003 for participating in a documentary,Forbidden Iran, in which he spoke out about human rights violations in Iran.

Following a trial in 2005, he was sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment and 75 lashes by the Revolutionary Court on charges related to “spreading propaganda against the system”, “establishing and directing an organization opposed to the government”, being the director of the Parto-e Hekmat Cultural Education Centre in Tehran, participating in the making of the documentary and for his writings on a secular system of governance in Iran.

His flogging sentence has not been implemented.