Iran’s Intelligence Ministry is pressing new charges against prominent Azeri ethnic rights activist Abbas Lesani, claiming he has been organizing protests from inside the prison in the city of Ardabil where he is incarcerated. Since January ...
Javaid Rehman was appointed as the third Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in ...
Elham Ahmadi, an imprisoned member of the Sufi Gonabadi Order in Iran, has been sentenced to 148 lashes for speaking out about the denial of medical treatment and poor living conditions in Gharchak Prison located south of Tehran in the town of Varamin, ...
Yekta Fahandej Sa’di was sentenced to 11 years and nine months in prison for her Baha’i religious beliefs by a preliminary court in the city of Shiraz in south-central Iran on December 30, 2018, the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) has ...
An Iranian Appeals Court upheld a one-year prison sentence against Kiumars Eslami for his peaceful activism, alleging he engaged in “pan-Turkish” activities, according to a verdict issued on November 22, 2018, a copy of which has been viewed by the Center for Human Rights ...
Editor's Note: This resolution was passed December 17, 2018, with 84 voting for, 30 against and 67 in abstention: http://undocs.org/A/73/589/Add.3. Serious Concern Expressed for Unlawful Executions and Arbitrary Detentions November 19, 2018 – With two more votes than the previous year, the UN General Assembly’s Third Committee appr...
Iranian authorities have relocated the buried corpse of a deceased member of the Baha’i faith to a different cemetery without the family’s permission, the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) has learned. After Shamsi Aghdasi Azamian died on October 22, 2018, in ...
Mobile Billboard with Photos of Iran’s Political Prisoners to Circle UN Headquarters During Meetings September 19, 2018—As President Hassan Rouhani comes to NY to attend the 73rd session of the UN General Assembly, the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) urges the international community to directly address ...
Four Christians in Iran, including two converts, have appealed their prison sentences for alleged missionary activities, arguing that they’re innocent of the charges. “It is our expectation that the charges will be dropped and their sentences struck down because there is no ...
Twenty Sufi Muslims, all members of Iran’s Gonabadi Order, have been issued heavy prison sentences by the Revolutionary Court in Tehran since July 2018 for allegedly attended protests that included violent clashes with police and security forces in Tehran ...
Relatives of Ramin Hossein Panahi, a Kurdish man on death row in Iran, have raised concerns that his chances of imminent execution have increased since several soldiers of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) were killed in late July ...
Kurdish political activist Mokhtar Zarei was summoned and taken into custody in Sanandaj, the capital of Iran’s Kurdistan Province, on July 21, 2018, for criticizing Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in a letter, a close associate informed the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) on ...
Sepanta Niknam has reclaimed his city council seat in the city of Yazd, southeastern Iran, nine months after he was suspended by a local court because he’s a member of the Zoroastrian faith. “I think it would be best that under the current circumstances, ...
Several ethnic rights activists detained at an annual celebration at Babak Fort in Iran’s East Azerbaijan Province required medical attention after being violently interrogated. “All of the 20 people so far have been released from the [Intelligence Ministry’s] detention ...
The location of detained Baluchi ethnic rights activist Abdollah Bozorgzadeh remains unknown three weeks after he was detained in the Iranian city of Iranshahr in Sistan and Baluchistan Province. Bozorgzadeh was taken into custody on June 17, 2018, during a rally to protest the ...
Fear Grows After Bus Driver Was Executed in Iran Despite Similar Concerns June 20, 2018—The Iranian judiciary should immediately annul the death sentence issued against Kurdish prisoner Ramin Hossein Panahi and investigate credible concerns of ...
Hatam Morammezi holding his nephew. Family Threatened to Stay Silent About the Case, Which Marks Sixth Death in Custody in Iran in Last Five Months After a year in detention in Iran, 20-year-old Arab rights advocate Hatam Morammezi has been pronounced dead ...
A young man has been expelled from the University of Gilan in northern Iran because of his Baha’i faith in another example of Iranian universities discriminating against students for their religious beliefs without consequences. A source close to Arash Razavian told the Center for Human ...
Mohammad Salas, a Sufi bus driver convicted in Iran of running over three policemen in the capital city of Tehran, could be hanged in a “few days” despite arguing that he caused the deaths by accident. “News that the execution has been ...
Six months have passed and the Iranian government has still not resolved the dispute over the suspension of a Yazd City Council member, Sepanta Niknam, due to his Zoroastrian faith. “I think they want this issue to go ...
Ahvaz Friday Prayer Leader Calls For Apology From State TV Over Discriminatory Children’s Show At least 200 people were arrested after a week of demonstrations in Iran’s mainly Arab-populated Khuzestan Province. On April 6, 2018, the Friday prayer leader of the flashpoint city of Ahvaz requested an apology ...
At Least Two Activists Facing “National Security” Charges Iran’s cyber police, known as FATA, and the Intelligence Ministry have summoned rights activists in mainly Kurdish-populated provinces of the country and accused them of protesting against the state. Some of the activists ...
Very few photographs exist online of Sharon Gardens, a large and valuable piece of real estate located in the Iranian city of Karaj that has been confiscated from its Christian owners. Sharon Gardens, a valuable ...
Death Sentence Struck Down Twice by Supreme Court Mohammad Ali Taheri, the founder of a mystical Shiite spiritual group in Iran, has been sentenced to five years in prison for a second time, this time for the charge of “corruption on earth,” his lawyer ...
Clashes among members of a predominantly peaceful minority faith in Iran and security forces have resulted in a discussion on social media among Iranians about the use of violence as a form of self-defense. “Mr. Dervish! There is no common ground between peaceful ...