HRANA News Agency – The spokesperson of Catherine Ashton, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice President of the Commission, issued the following statement today:
“The High Representative is deeply concerned about reports that the execution of Iranian prisoner Gholamreza Khosravi Savadjani may be imminent. She appeals for clemency and urges that the sentence be commuted. His death sentence contravenes Iran’s international obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The EU holds a strong and principled position against the death penalty. The High Representative restates her call on Iran to halt all pending executions and to introduce a moratorium on the death penalty.”
HRANA News Agency – GENEVA — The UN human rights agency on Tuesday voiced deep concern over the arrest and imprisonment of a number of prominent human rights and political activists, lawyers and journalists in Iran over the past two weeks.
“This appears to reflect a further severe clampdown on critical voices in the country,” Rupert Colville, a spokesman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, told reporters in Geneva.
“Lawyers, human rights defenders and independent media make a key contribution in democratic societies and must be allowed to carry out their work without facing intimidation, harassment, arrest and prosecution,” he insisted. Continue reading “The U.N. human rights deeply worried of Iran’s cracking down on human rights activists, lawyers and journalists”
HRANA News Agency – This is a ‘generalized’ letter to send to the authorities around the world to urge Iranian governors to stop executions of Gholamreza Khosravi Savadjani and other prisoners sentenced to death in Iran.
Subject: Save Gholamreza Khosravi and other prisoners sentenced to death in Iran
To Whom it may concern;
“I beg you, calling on the Iranian authorities, not to execute Gholamreza Khosravi Savadjani, or anyone else sentenced to death and remind them that under international law, the death penalty can only be carried out for “the most serious crimes” which must be “intentional crimes with lethal or other extremely grave consequences. “ Continue reading “E-mail sending Action: Please help save Gholamreza Khosravi and other prisoners sentenced to death in Iran”
HRANA News Agency – (Beirut) – Proposed amendments to Iran’s penal code would violate the rights of accused people and criminal defendants, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Iranian authorities should suspend enactment of the proposed amendments and undertake a major overhaul of the country’s abusive penal laws.
The 48-page report, “Codifying Repression: An Assessment of Iran’s New Penal Code,” says that many problematic provisions of the current penal code remain unaddressed in the proposed amendments. Some of the amendments would weaken further the rights of criminal defendants and convicts and allow judges wide discretion to issue punishments that violate the rights of the accused. Lawmakers and judiciary officials have cited the amendments as a serious attempt to comply with Iran’s international human rights obligations. Continue reading “HRW: Proposed Penal Code Deeply Flawed in Iran”
HRANA News Agency –Iranian businessman Mazyar Ebrahimi and 11 others have been held incommunicado since their arrest in June 2012. On 6 August the five women and seven men appeared on Iranian state television “confessing” to the killing of five Iranian nuclear scientists and academics since 2010. Amnesty International fears they could face the death penalty.
On 12 June Mazyar Ebrahimi, founder of a cinema and television production company in Iraqi Kurdistan, was arrested in Tehran by Ministry of Intelligence security forces for “reasons of national security”. His family have not been informed of his whereabouts since and their requests for contact have been refused. Mazyar Ebrahimi has not been allowed a lawyer of his choosing since his arrest because his case is still “under investigation”. Continue reading “Amnesty: IRAN TV “Confessions” breach suspects’ rights”
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”. Continue reading “Amnesty: Iran must immediately release prisoner of conscience Arzhang Davoodi”
HRANA News Agency – Amnesty International; An Iranian man, Gholamreza Khosravi Savajani, is scheduled to be executed on 10 September, on the charge of “enmity against God” (moharebeh) for his alleged support of a banned Iranian opposition group, the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI).
Continue reading “Amnesty’s Urgent Action – IRAN: Gholamreza Khosravi is scheduled to be executed on 10 September”
Your Excellency, Dr. Ahmad Shaheed,
The Special Rapporteur of the United Nations
Please accept the warm greetings of a Kurdish family who has endured much pain.
We are the family of the social activist Anvar Hussein Panahi who was sentenced to death four years ago for a crime he had not committed. Because of the pressure exerted and the support shown by the international human rights organizations and the European Union, the Appeals Court commuted Anvar’s death penalty and sentenced him to six years in prison.
Anvar Hussein Panahi is the oldest son in our family and has a wife and three children. His younger sister, Ashraf, was the second born child in our family. She had a job in Tehran and provided financial help to her elderly father. After Anvar was arrested and sentenced to death, Ashraf moved from Tehran to Sanandaj in order to help with her brother’s case and that of a cousin also condemned to death. Continue reading “An Open letter From the Family of Anvar Hussein Panahi to Dr. Shaheed”
HRANA News Agency – The administrative office of Human Rights Activists in Iran has issued a press release to express concerns over Reza Shahabi’s condition in prison after this political prisoner began his hunger strike, and the news of his deteriorating health was reported.
Human Rights Activists in Iran has requested that the Special Rapporteur of the United Nations to pay immediate attention to this prisoner of conscience. Demanding immediate and unconditional release of the labor activist Reza Shahabi, this organization has also reminded the government of Iran that the freedom to form and participate in labor unions is an integral part of international obligations towards human rights. Continue reading “Press Release: Reza Shahabi’s Condition Alarming”
HRANA News Agency – On the 32nd anniversary of the day when the American embassy in Tehran was occupied by student activists in 1979, nineteen former and current student activists have written a letter to President Obama to ask him to end the US appeasement policy towards the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Bamdad Khabar Website has released the complete contents of this letter as follows:
Your Excellency, the President of the United States of America,
With greetings,
Last year on a day such as this, a group of student activists wrote a letter to you to direct your attention towards human rights violations in Iran and your moral obligation to support our oppressed nation. Continue reading “Student Activists to Obama: “End US Appeasement Policy towards IRI””
