Baktash Abtin (left) and Adel Kianpour (right). Concerns Mount for Prisoners Under Judiciary Chief Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Eje’i COVID-19 in Crowded Jails and Routine Denial of Medical Treatment Put All at Risk Jan 3, 2022 – News of an imprisoned political prisoner dying after going ...
UN human rights experts today strongly condemned the execution in Iran of political prisoner Heydar (or Heidar) Ghorbani, who was tortured and sentenced to death without a lawyer. Following is the complete UN press release. GENEVA, UN Press Release (22 December 2021) - UN ...
The following joint statement, signed by 23 international human rights organizations including the Center for Human Rights in Iran, calls on Iranian judicial authorities to release the activist Mehdi Mahmoudian and defense attorneys Arash Keykhosravi and Mostafa Nili. These peaceful human rights defenders, who were arbitrarily arrested while trying to ...
Abbas and Mohsen Deris, both members of Iran’s ethnic Arab minority in Khuzestan Province, were arrested during the country’s violently repressed November 2019 protests, which broke out across the country that month and which saw an estimated 100 protesters killed in Khuzestan alone ...
Mother of Two Facing Flogging, Prison—Two Years After Completing 5.5-Year Sentence November 17, 2021 – The prominent rights advocate Narges Mohammadi was detained on the anniversary of the country’s violently repressed November 2019 protests and could be flogged and serve a 30-month prison term if the ...
Two British citizens spent the night in frigid temperatures outside the Foreign Office in London on November 2, 2021, in a bid to gain freedom for their loved ones who are unjustly jailed in Iran ...
Mehdi Darini, a political prisoner in Tehran’s Evin Prison, set himself on fire on October 27, 2021, after his lawful requests for parole were repeatedly rejected, independent journalist Keyvan Samimi reported. The event stirred public memory of a young woman, Sahar Khodayari, who set herself on ...
More Political Prisoners Could Die in Custody without Urgent International Action October 20, 2021 – A prominent defense attorney in Iran bit off part of his tongue after being forcibly given an injection that brought on seizures while detained by the intelligence organization of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard ...
Group was Arrested Ahead of Filing Lawsuit Against State Officials for Disastrous Pandemic Response Legal Teams of Defendants Denied Access to Case Files, Homes Raided Detainees Were Pressured to Sign Pledges Promising to Withdraw Any Lawsuits October 12, 2021 - The ongoing detention of Iranian defense lawyers ...
Hacked footage from security cameras in Iran’s Evin Prison and the publication of some of the prison’s documents published online by a group calling itself “Edalat-e Ali” (Ali's Justice) has provided a glimpse into the systematic violence committed against prisoners there. However, former inmates have noted that ...
Investigation Marked by Torture, Witness Tampering and Contradictions August 26, 2021—The refusal by Iran’s Supreme Court to allow a judicial review of the 25-year prison sentence for Vahid Afkari, the brother of wrestling champion Navid Afkari who was unlawfully executed last year, despite evidence of torture, ...
Agents Confiscate Personal Security Cameras to Hide Evidence of Unlawful Raid State security agents carried out unlawful search operations in the homes of two detained human rights lawyers, Arash Keykhosravi and Mohammad Reza Faghihi, in Tehran eleven days after the lawyers were unlawfully arrested along with ...
Lawyer: The Ruling against Vahid Afkari had “24 Contradictions and 3 Lies” Despite Inconsistencies and Torture, Supreme Court Refuses to Review 25-year Prison Sentence Nearly a year after the unlawful execution of wrestling champion Navid Afkari, a request by his brother Vahid, who along with a third Afkari ...
Six Arbitrarily Detained as State Tries to Block Attempt to Seek Justice August 17, 2021—The unlawful arrests of six prominent lawyers and civil rights activists in Tehran as they were preparing to file a lawsuit against state officials for their gross mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic is ...
Editor’s Note: The Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) conducted the following interview with Iranian American musician Marjan Farsad ahead of the release of her new song, “Mahtab” (Moonlight), which was produced by CHRI. Listen to “Mahtab” on Apple Music, Spotify, and ...
Prisons Pose High Risks to Inmates Amid the Country’s Surging Covid-19 Pandemic August 4, 2021 – Elderly dual national prisoners Mehran Raoof, 66, and Nahid Taghavi, 64, were among five prisoners held on trumped-up charges who were sentenced to jail in Iran today, August 4, 2021. The ...
The start of a fifth COVID-19 wave in Iran, amidst national water and electricity shortages and unhygienic prison conditions, has greatly increased the risks of outbreaks among prisoners, some of whom have died and a growing number of whom are testing positive for the virus. In an ...
In a joint statement issued today, 14 international academic and human rights groups including Scholars at Risk and the Center for Human Rights in Iran called on the U.S. and European governments to secure the release of Iranian-born Swedish scholar Ahmadreza Djalali, who has ...
Ghost of Navid Afkari Haunts Judiciary Chief’s Election Bid June 15, 2021 – One week before Iranian Judiciary Chief Ebrahim Raisi runs virtually uncontested for president, the family of Navid Afkari—a wrestler who was executed under Raisi’s watch—has filed a supreme court petition seeking a ...
Jamshid Sharmahd (center) smiles for a family photo beside his wife (left) and daughter. Iranian authorities are blocking Jamshid Sharmahd, an Iranian-born German man who has been detained in Iran since July 2020, a lawyer of his choice. Instead, the ...
At Least Two Political Prisoners Have Died in Past Four Months Niknafs Was Jailed Despite Health Conditions That Made Him Unfit for Prison June 7, 2021 – Another political prisoner has died in state custody two weeks before Iran’s Judiciary Chief Ebrahim Raisi, who is ultimately responsible for ...
The state policy of persecuting and imprisoning independent defense lawyers under false charges for doing their jobs is continuing under Iranian Judiciary Chief Ebrahim Raisi, who is running for the presidency in June 2021. In addition to at least four defense attorneys who are currently imprisoned in ...
May 5, 2021 – Eight months after an Iranian wrestler was unjustly executed in Shiraz, his brothers Vahid and Habib Afkari remain in prolonged solitary confinement in the same prison where they’ve also been tortured and threatened with execution, the Center for Human Rights in ...
Mohammad Nourizad appears with a bloody face after protesting outside the home of Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khaminei, October 14, 2014 (photo credit: courtesy/Abazar Noorizad) UN Press Release GENEVA (4 May 2021) – UN human rights experts* today expressed serious ...
A year after agents of Iran’s Intelligence Ministry arrested and tortured them, university students Ali Younesi and Amirhossein Moradi remain in Ward 209 of Evin Prison in Tehran, controlled by the ministry, while being denied access to lawyers and their relatives, the Center for Human ...