UN Condemns Iran’s Secret Execution of Kurdish Political Prisoner
“I will pay the price of freedom with my life so that my memory stays in the hearts of freedom seekers and my people.” UN human ...
Free Expression
Designer Amir Taghi Donates Net Proceeds from Mask Sales to Center for Human Rights in Iran
This July, Support CHRI by Purchasing Masks from Amir Taghi's Fashion Line June 30, 2020 – The Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) is pleased to announce that Iranian American fashion designer Amir ...
UN Must End “Sterile Exchanges” and Investigate Iran’s Lethal Violence against Protesters, Says Father of Slain Demonstrator
Letter Reveals New Details: 144 Bodies Secretly Held in Karaj Medical Examiner’s Office Alone June 29, 2020 — In an impassioned plea to top UN officials, the father of Pouya Bakhtiyari, who was ...
Kurdish Prisoner, 27, Secretly Executed Despite Judge Agreeing He Was Innocent
Death Sentence Was Result Pressure from Revolutionary Guards The family of Hedayatollah (Hedayat) Abdollahpour, a 27-year-old Kurdish-Iranian father of two who was on ...
Sepideh Qoliyan Refuses to Beg for Pardon, Goes Back to Prison
She Must Serve Five-year Sentence for Reporting on Peaceful Labor Rally Freelance reporter Sepideh Qoliyan, issued a five-year sentence for reporting on a peaceful rally by sugar mill workers for unpaid wages, ...
Prominent Teachers’ Rights Activist Facing Additional Years in Prison
Old Suspended Sentence Resurrected to Keep Esmail Abdi Behind Bars Imprisoned teachers’ rights activist Esmail Abdi, who has been serving a six-year prison sentence since 2016 for his peaceful teachers’ rights activism, is facing ...
No Lawyers, No Justice: Attorneys Imprisoned in Iran for Defending Human Rights
At Least Nine Defense Attorneys Sentenced to Prison Since 2018 June 23, 2020 – Two years after the prominent human rights attorney Nasrin Sotoudeh was arrested and imprisoned in Tehran, the Iranian ...
Mother of Jailed Anti-Compulsory Hijab Activist Calls for Legal Reform
*Update: On November 9, 2020, Branch 28 of the Supreme Court rejected a petition by Kord-Afshari’s lawyer, Hosein Taj, to review the 24-year prison sentence against Saba Kord-Afshari for her peaceful campaign against compulsory hijab. Based ...
Get Up, Stand Up: Protest and the Struggle for Justice
The murder of George Floyd was not just the killing of one man, it was an assault on justice and the rule of law. It is one instance of many in which ...
“They Aimed at My Son’s Head”: Report Reveals Carnage in Crushed Iran Protests
May 27, 2020 — A new report released today by the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) documents the extraordinary state violence that was used against protesters in Iran during the ...
Prison, Flogging for Protesters Who Gathered to Commemorate Victims of Plane Crash
“The trial did not last even a minute,” Legal Counsel Denied Civil rights activist Shora Fekri was taken to prison in Amol, Mazandaran Province, on May 18, 2020, to begin serving a five-month ...
Human Rights Lawyer Sentenced to Prison Without Access to Counsel
Four Defense Attorneys Imprisoned in Iran in Less Than Two Years Human rights attorney Payam Derafshan was denied access to counsel while being tried for the charge of “insulting the supreme leader,” ...
Novelist Brother of “Iran’s Bob Dylan” Loses Appeal Against Politically Motivated Prison Sentence
Iranian Judiciary Contiguously Targeting Dissidents’ Family Members Iran’s Appeals Court upheld a one-year prison sentence against novelist Hamid Namjoo for the content of his writings and because he published work abroad, ...
Masih Alinejad: My Brother is Facing Prison Time for Being Related to Me
The brother of activist Masih Alinejad is being prosecuted in Tehran to “pressure” her to end her campaign against the compulsory hijab, she said in a press release calling for his release. A ...
Detained Teen Instagram Star With COVID-19 on Ventilator After Judge Refused to Release Her
Judge Mohammad Moghiseh, Who Could Authorize Her Release, Has Been Unreachable Detained teenage Instagram celebrity Fatemeh Khishvand is currently on a ventilator at Sina Hospital in Tehran after contracting COVID-19 in state custody, ...
Political Prisoner with COVID-19 Symptoms Denied Treatment, Transferred to Solitary Confinement
Peaceful prisoner of conscience Mohammad Hossein Sepehri, who was imprisoned in the Iranian city of Mashhad after signing an open letter calling on Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei to resign, was denied hospital treatment and transferred to solitary confinement without his medication after exhibiting COVID-19 ...
Nasrin Sotoudeh: “If We’re Going to Die, Let Us Be by Our Families’ Sides”
Jailed Attorney, Fellow Political Prisoners Hunger Strike for Freedom Amid COVID-19 Outbreak March 17, 2020 -- At least three political activists in Tehran’s Evin Prison have joined prominent imprisoned human rights attorney ...
Several Detained, Summoned in Iran After Publicly Criticizing State’s COVID-19 Response
Members of civil society in Iran including a city councilman, soccer player, and journalists were detained or summoned for questioning after criticizing the Iranian government’s management of the country’s widening COVID-19 outbreak ...
“They Want to Create Fear” More Artists Summoned to Prison Amid Iran’s Rising COVID-19 Death Toll
In addition to renowned filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof, three members of the Iranian Writers Association (IWA)—Baktash Abtin, Reza Khandan Mahabadi and Keyvan Bajan—have been summoned to prison as other inmates are ...
UN Expert Alarmed by Detention Conditions in the Wake of Recent Protests
UN Press Release GENEVA (9 March 2020) – Individuals detained in Iranian detention facilities are suffering from serious human rights violations and the situation of those arrested during the November ...
Families Urge Judiciary Chief to Include Jailed Conservationists In Mass Prisoner Release
56,000 Temporarily Freed from Iran's Overcrowded Prisons Amid Coronavirus Outbreak The families of eight conservationists imprisoned in Iran on trumped-up charges have called on Iranian Judiciary Chief Ebrahim Raisi to release them on furlough along ...
Amid Coronavirus Outbreak, Renowned Filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof Summoned to Prison
Rasoulof’s Film About Iran’s Death Penalty Recently Won Top Prize at Berlin Film Festival March 4, 2020 – The Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) strongly condemns the Iranian judiciary’s decision to put ...
Coronavirus in Iran: Health Experts Question Officially Reported Infection Numbers
Grave Concerns Mounting Amid Rising Death Toll, Fears of Regional Outbreak February 26, 2020 -- Amid a rising death toll in Iran from the COVID-19 coronavirus strain, public health experts are suggesting that the number ...
Evin Prison Sees Inmate Transfers, Construction as Authorities Prep for More Protest Crackdowns
Iranian authorities have transferred a large number of inmates out of Evin Prison in Tehran—notorious for holding political prisoners—to other prisons and implemented further security measures in Evin in preparation for more sudden ...
Iran Moves to Silence Journalists, Activists Ahead of Parliamentary Elections
Tehran-Based Reporter: “They Want Us to Stop Writing” February 11, 2020 – The intelligence arm of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is summoning journalists, raiding their homes and confiscating their electronic devices ...