Nasrin Sotoudeh, a prominent Iranian lawyer, has dedicated her life to fighting for human rights and defending prisoners of conscience in Iran. For her work, she was recently awarded the European Parliament’s prestigious Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought. For her work, she is serving a six-year prison sentence on charges of “acting against national ...
The European Parliament today awarded its prestigious Sakharov Prize for human rights and freedom of thought to imprisoned Iranian lawyer and human rights defender Nasrin Sotoudeh and prominent filmmaker Jafar Panahi. Both awardees have been sentenced to long prison sentences in Iran and bans on travel and their careers because of their opposition to the ...
Protesting her prison conditions, Nasrin Sotoudeh embarked on a wet hunger strike beginning on Wednesday, October 17. Iranian Judiciary officials have not yet reacted to Sotoudeh’s demands. Nasrin Sotoudeh is objecting to her 12-year-old daughter’s travel ban and summons to court, the authorities’ refusal to allow her visitation with her mother for the past year, ...
Earlier this year, in July, Javad Larijani stated, “There are no political prisoners inside the Islamic Republic of Iran.” Just last week, on October 17, Larijani’s brother Sadeq Larijani, Iran’s Head of Judiciary, claimed, “No one is executed in Iran for their political convictions.” ...
Several Sunni Kurds awaiting trial at Evin and Rajaee Shahr prisons for a number of years were put on trial on September 29, a local source told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran. The Sunni Kurds were denied the option to choose a lawyer, and Judge Moghisseh of Branch 28 of Tehran Revolutionary ...
In the seven months since Iranian-American Amir Hekmati’s death sentence was overturned in Tehran, Iranian officials have ignored his family’s requests for information and has failed to schedule his retrial. Since his arrest, Hekmati’s father has been diagnosed with an aggressive and potentially fatal brain cancer and has been unable to travel to Iran to ...
Iranian media reported on October 4 that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was planning to visit the entirety of Evin Prison, including parts under the control of the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC). Since June 2012, Ahmadinejad’s media advisor Ali Akbar Javanfekr has been imprisoned at Evin, a case Ahmadinejad noted he would pursue. Dozens of prisoners of conscience ...
In a statement released October 2, 2012, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights of the United Nations expressed its concern over “the arrest and imprisonment of several prominent human rights defenders, journalists and political activists in … Iran in the past two weeks.” The OHCHR warned of “a further severe clamp down ...
In an exclusive interview with the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, 2003 Nobel laureate and human rights activist Shirin Ebadi spoke about a new teachers’ rights initiative and called on the Iranian government to “listen to the legitimate demands of the teachers and to act on them.” ...
Just over three years ago, three young Americans—Sarah Shourd, Shane Bauer and Joshua Fattal—were taken into custody by Iranian border guards while hiking in Iraqi Kurdistan. Though the young Americans’ case was widely believed to be political theater, Iranian authorities insisted they had illegally crossed over into Iranian territory in order to commit espionage; charges ...
According to Iranian state news agency (IRNA), quoting the news website of Tehran Revolutionary and General Courts, former Member of the Iranian Parliament and Editor-in-Chief of the banned newspaper Zan, Faezeh Hashemi was arrested on Saturday night in Tehran, in order to begin serving her six-month prison term. ...
Omid Kokabi, 30, is a scientist who graduated from Tehran’s Sharif University. At the time of his arrest at Tehran’s Imam Khomeini Airport as he intended to board a flight, he was a post-doctoral student at University of Texas at Austin. Kokabi was kept in solitary confinement for months and his family and his lawyer ...
The Christian pastor’s earlier charges were “apostasy” and “converting to Christianity,” but the new charges of “banditry and extortion” were first mentioned last year on Fars News Agency. A source close to the case of Youcef Nadarkhani who wishes to remain anonymous on security grounds told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran that, ...
Most of the prisoners who were released had already served half of their sentences. Iranian law stipulates that inmates who have served half of their prison term may be released conditionally. A considerable number of political prisoners remaining inside Evin Prison and other facilities have also served half of their sentences, but have not been ...
“Narges’ illness is muscle paralysis, but they first transferred her to Zanjan Hospital’s Neurology Department. Two days ago, they transferred her to another hospital, to Shahid Beheshti Hospital in Zanjan, where she has been hospitalized in their Neurology Department. These are all sources of concern for us,” said Mohammadi’s husband. “We demand that Narges be ...
Farideh Honarvar Shojayee told the Campaign she that during her booth visit with her son on June 30, “Arash’s health was very bad. Though they have been giving him his medicine, more or less, for the last few days, but he is not well yet. The hunger strike has also affected his health. He has ...
Arash Honarvar Shojayee, a dissident blogger and cleric, returned to Evin Prison on Saturday, June 30, after his furlough leave ended. Hours before returning to prison, in an interview with the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, he said that he will be put on trial on new charges of “propagating falsehoods with the ...
Yashar Khameneh, known in the cyber world as “Naghi Pajooh” for his contributions to the Facebook page “Campaign to Remind the Shias of Imam Naghi,” told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran that his father, who was arrested because of his son’s activities, is being threatened in prison. ...
Bahman Ahmadi Amouee, a prominent journalist and economic analyst, has been in prison since his arrest on June 20, 2009. On 11 June 2012, on the anniversary of the 2009 presidential election, prisoners in Ward 350 in Evin Prison got together to commemorate the year anniversary of the death of Hoda Saber, authorities transferred Amouee, ...
Prominent economic analyst Fariborz Raisdana, who has been in prison for over a month, is facing a deterioration of his health condition. His wife, Azadeh Forghani, told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran that poor prison treatment and conditions threaten his physical state. “Due to his age and his different illnesses, the prison ...
The Iranian Constitution grants Christianity the status of ‘recognized religion,’ safeguarding the right of its believers to exercise their faith. In practice, authorities are increasingly persecuting Christians, especially Protestants and converts, closing churches, arresting community leaders, and even threatening converts with execution. ...
Mohammad Bagher Bagheri Nejadian Fard, a former member of the Iranian Parliament, told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran that in July 2011 security forces murdered his daughter. He stated that after numerous requests for investigation, Ministry of Intelligence officials have only threatened him to remain silent. ...
Saeed Madani, 74, remains in Evin Prison’s Ward 209 after having completed his interrogations. Mansoureh Ettefagh, Madani’s wife, told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran that he has likely undergone torture during his detention. She also said that his interrogators are keeping Madani in solitary confinement to punish him. ...
A local source told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran that the abrupt transfer of Younes Aghayan, a political prisoner on death row, from his prison cell to other detention locations, has sparked fears of his imminent execution. According to the local source, Special Police Forces transferred a handcuffed, foot-cuffed, and blindfolded Younes ...
Mohammad Sadiq Kaboudvand, a Kurdish human rights activist who has been in prison since 2007, has been on a wet hunger strike for over a month to demand visitation rights with his sick child. After visiting him on June 20, Kaboudvand’s wife, Parinaz Baghban Hassani, told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran that ...