Keyvan Samimi Sees Worsening Fear and Repression in Iran The veteran journalist and political activist Keyvan Samimi must report to Evin Prison to begin serving a three-year prison sentence for his peaceful activism and reporting. On August 21, Samimi posted a screenshot of an electronic summons from ...
Jafar Azimzadeh Should Have Been Released, Instead Given Another 13 Months Now Activist Has Contracted COVID-19 in Iran’s Overcrowded Prisons The prominent labor activist Jafar Azimzadeh, who should have been released from prison in February 2020 as part of a broad state-issued pardon and who has since ...
Twelve Test Positive, Many Others with Symptoms, None Receiving Proper Treatment Prominent Labor Activists, Lawyer and Journalist Among Those Falling Ill August 11, 2020—Political prisoners in Iran—including prominent labor leaders Esmail Abdi and Jafar Azimzadeh, the human rights attorney Amirsalar Davouudi, the journalist Majid Azarpey ...
New Fact Sheet Highlights Widespread Rights Abuses, Protests Likely to Continue August 4, 2020—With workers in Iran’s critical oil refining, petrochemicals and drilling industries striking in southern Iran over working conditions and unpaid wages since July 31, and sugar mill workers in Khuzestan Province protesting unpaid wages since ...
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, has had to report to prison to begin serving her sentence—even though some of her ...
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 additional years in prison with the enforcement of a suspended sentence issued a ...
Nine Labor Rights Activists and Journalists Sentenced to Prison Without Right to Appeal Judiciary Chief Ebrahim Raisi Eliminated Appeal Process with Supreme Leader’s Blessing Nine labor activists were each sentenced to five years in prison on December 14, 2019, on the charge of “assembly and collusion against national security” at Branch ...
Six Prisoners Posted Extraordinarily High Bail, Unclear Why Fellow Prisoners of Conscience Remain Jailed A Christian convert, four journalists and two activists were released from prisons in Iran on October 26, 2019, without any public announcement as to who ordered their long-sought release or why others who’d been ...
Female Activist Described Inhumane Conditions of Detention in Video Statement *Warning: This article contains content that could be upsetting or disturbing for some readers. Sepideh Qoliyan is currently serving an 18.6-year prison sentence in Iran’s Gharchak Prison for women after being arrested at workers’ rights ...
More than three years into ongoing strikes for unpaid wages and benefits, workers of Iran’s biggest sugar plant are now also calling for their imprisoned colleagues’ freedom. Hundreds of workers of the Haft Tappeh Sugarcane Agro-industrial Complex in the city of Shush, southwestern Iran, attended a fifth consecutive ...
Mehdi Qoliyan Acquitted of All Charges After Violent Home Raid On September 14, 2019, the BBC aired an audio file containing the voice of labor activist Sepideh Qoliyan saying that she was pressured to make a false confession by agents while held in Gharchak Prison ...
Seven Sentenced to Lengthy Jail Terms in Connection with Peaceful Protests September 9, 2019—Less than a year after workers’ rights activists in southwestern Iran publicized evidence that Intelligence Ministry agents had tortured detainees, those same activists and four independent journalists who covered their cases have been ...