Children of the Jacaranda Tree, by Sahar Delijani, is a stunning debut novel set in post-Revolutionary Iran. Told in interconnected, alternating perspectives, the book follows three generations of men and women, some linked by family, others brought together by the tide of history that forces its way into their lives. ...
Iran's new president Hassan Rouhani nominated Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi for the post of justice minister on August 4, 2013. Rights groups have implicated Pour-Mohammadi in abuses that may constitute crimes against humanity, including the executions ...
Iran’s new president, Hassan Rouhani, should immediately withdraw his nomination of Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi for the post of justice minister, Reporters Without Borders, the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, and Human Rights Watch said today. Rouhani presented the list of his nominees for cabinet posts to the Iranian parliament during his inauguration ceremony on ...
The 40th-day memorial service for labor activist Afshin Osanloo, who died on June 20 of what prison authorities announced as “a heart attack,” was held at Tehran’s Behesht-e Zahra Cemetery, under the close watch and direction of a large number of security forces. Afshin Osanloo’s mother told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran ...
With the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the death sentences of four young Arab men from Ahvaz on charges of “moharebeh” (enmity with God) and “corruption on earth,” the prisoners are currently in danger of imminent execution at Karoon Prison in Ahvaz. The four Arab citizens and their families were informed of the Supreme Court’s ...
In reaction to the Medical Examiner’s Office’s final opinion stating that Sattar Beheshti’s cause of death could not have been blows while in detention, his mother recently demanded for his body to be exhumed to determine his real cause of death. ...
Three young men died. Dozens of others were abused psychologically, physically, and sexually in Kahrizak Detention Center, where they were sent because they protested the 2009 presidential election results. More than three years after ...
The Head of the Iranian Medical Examiner’s Office said on Tuesday, July 9, that according to his organization’s final report, the blows dealt to blogger Sattar Beheshti during his interrogation were not fatal and could not have caused his death, Mehr News Agency reported. Dr. Ahmad Shojaee also told Mehr that in the Medical ...
Afshin Sohrabzadeh, a young Kurdish prisoner at Minab Prison, attempted suicide on Wednesday, July 3, in protest of his exile and what he called the “deplorable conditions” of the facility, a local source told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran. The source, a human rights activist, told the Campaign that Sohrabzadeh, sentenced to ...
A lower court ruling in the Kahrizak case issued yesterday indicates that the three suspects in the case were permanently dismissed from judicial positions, and further dismissed from government employment for five years. To the astonishment of observers, Saeed Mortazavi, the prime suspect in the case, was acquitted from the charge of “participation in murder,” ...
Sixty-three political prisoners inside Ward 4, Hall 12, of Rajaee Shahr Prison in Karaj wrote a message of condolences to the family of Afshin Osanloo for the political prisoner’s death. The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran received the message for publication. ...
The lawyer for Sattar Beheshti, a blogger who died in November 2012 while in the custody of the Iranian Cyber Police (FATA), said her client’s case has not been forwarded to court and objected to the eight-month delay in an interview with the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran. ...
Following rumors that prisoner of conscience Arash Sadeghi had died in prison, his former lawyer told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran that he is alive, though the lawyer refused to answer questions about whether Sadeghi had been beaten in prison. Sadeghi’s former cellmate told the Campaign no prisoners have seen him, and ...
The family of deceased prisoner of conscience Afshin Osanloo has requested that the Medical Examiner investigate his cause of death, his sister told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran. Osanloo’s official cause of death on June 20, 2013, has been listed as a heart attack, but his sister Fereshteh Osanloo said he did ...
On the fourth anniversary of the death of Neda Agha Soltan in the aftermath of the 2009 presidential elections, her mother told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, “There was supposed to be a court trial held, but in the past four years there hasn’t been a trial. The case file is still ...
The eleventh and final session of the trial for the deaths in Kahrizak Prison of three detainees in 2009 was held on Wednesday, May 22. Though the judge has not yet announced the adjournment of the trial, the lawyers told the press that the defendants had issued their last defense and there would be no ...
The tenth session of the trial of former Tehran Prosecutor Saeed Mortazavi and two other officials for the deaths in Kahrizak Prison of three detainees in 2009 opened yesterday with the father of one of the victims withdrawing his “participation in murder” suit against Mortazavi. The eleventh and final session of the trial is being ...
A local source told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran that as a result of shots fired on the vehicle of a group of Kurdish tradesmen (kasebkar) by the Arak Police Special Forces Unit on the road between Saveh (140 kilomters outside of Tehran) and Tehran, a Kurdish tradesman was killed and another ...
The eighth trial session of judges implicated in the Kahrizak Detention Center case was held on Monday, May 13 at Branch 76 of Tehran Penal Court under Judge Siamak Modir Khorasani. As in the previous seven sessions, the court session was held behind closed doors. Saeed Mortazavi, the main suspect charged with “participation in murder,” ...
Habibollah Golparipour, a Kurdish political prisoner on death row, was summoned by the Semnan Central Prison officials on May 9 and informed that he must prepare himself for transfer to an undisclosed location, a local source told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran. Golparipour was not informed of the reason for his transfer. ...
More than six months after the prison death of Sattar Beheshti, a laborer and blogger from Robat Karim (17 miles outside Tehran) who was arrested on November 3, 2012, and died the next day, his mother and sister have not been able to face in court the men who murdered the 35-year-old man under torture ...
Omid Sajjadi, a death row inmate convicted of drug trafficking charges at Bandar Abbas Prison, was hanged on March 22 after he attempted suicide by cutting a vein in his neck on March 21, a local source told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran. ...
The Public Relations Office of the Fars Province Judiciary reported on April 16 the public execution of nine individuals described as “armed robbers” and “members of three armed robbery gangs.” According to the Fars Judiciary report, the execution sentences of six of the individuals were carried out publicly at the crime location, and the three ...
Unidentified security forces have been threatening Sahar Beheshti with imprisonment or death if she speaks out about the case of her brother Sattar, a blogger who died while undergoing interrogation in a police detention center in November 2012. Sahar Beheshti is refusing to keep silent. “We only want the formation of a fair court with a ...
The sister of Sattar Beheshti, a blogger who died while undergoing interrogation in a police detention center in November 2012, has been receiving constant death threats to remain silent about his case, she told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran. Five months after his death, the investigation into his death has still not ...