Imprisoned Journalist Denied Knee Operation
Pattern of Denied Medical Care Continues in Iranian Prisons Imprisoned newspaper columnist Afarin Chitsaz urgently needs a knee operation, but the authorities have refused to allow her to be ...
Prisoners / Arrests
Union Leader: Less Pressure on Teachers Thanks to Rights Activists
Under Rouhani, “They have changed tactics from hard forms of pressure to milder ones.” The leader of Iran’s largest teachers’ rights organization has said that due to pressure from civil rights activists, the government of President Hassan Rouhani has been less repressive towards ...
Iranian Authorities Silent on Green Movement Campaign Worker Missing Since 2011
“None of the state agencies confirm or deny anything.” Alireza Piri, a dentist from Tabriz in northwestern Iran who campaigned for former presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi, has been missing since he was arrested on January 9, 2011. His family has not received ...
Upholding Narges Mohammadi’s 16-Year Prison Sentence is Indefensible
Mother of Two Young Children Will Be Eligible for Release Only After 10 Years September 28, 2016—The upholding of the 16-year prison sentence against human rights defender Narges Mohammadi by Iran’s Appeals Court for her peaceful work is cruel ...
Iran Appeals Court Upholds 16-Year Prison Sentence Against Rights Activist Narges Mohammadi
Mother of Two Young Children Will Be Eligible for Release Only After 10 Years An Appeals Court has upheld the 16-year prison sentence issued against prominent human rights defender Narges ...
Detained Editor Who Exposed Corruption Slapped with Additional Charge
Editor Yashar Soltani, who was initially charged with “spreading lies” after his website published unclassified information about illegal land sales by the Tehran Municipality, has also been charged with “gathering classified information with the intent to harm national ...
Reformist Editor Vows to Remain On Hunger Strike Until Released from Prison
Imprisoned newspaper editor Ehsan Mazandarani will be on hunger strike in Evin Prison until he is released based on Iran’s New Islamic Penal Code, which allows prisoners to apply for ...
Kahrizak Torture Victim Rejects Prosecutor’s Apology for Detainees’ Deaths
“Amir Javadifar died beside me as he was begging for water. I can never forget those moments.” Reza Zoghi, who was tortured at the Kahrizak Detention Center in south Tehran where three young men died as a result of the ...
Ailing Reformist Journalist’s Prison Sentence Reduced
Additional Charge Against Issa Saharkhiz Remains Pending Prominent reformist journalist Issa Saharkhiz’s prison sentence has been reduced based on Article 134 of the New Islamic Penal Code, his lawyer, Mahmoud Alizadeh Tabatabaee, ...
Reformist Editor Arrested Ahead of Rouhani’s Trip to the United Nations
Sadra Mohaghegh, the social affairs editor of the reformist Shargh newspaper, was arrested on September 19, 2016, but the circumstances surrounding his arrest and the charges against him are unclear, ...
On Hunger Strike, Imprisoned Music Distributors’ Health Deteriorates
Imprisoned music distributors Mehdi Rajabian and Hossein Rajabian are in poor health after starting a hunger strike on September 8, 2016 in Evin Prison. The brothers are ...
Cartoon 155: Proud
Just a few weeks after the publication of a 1988 audio recording on the late Grand Ayatollah Hosseinali Montazeri's website in which he told Judiciary and Intelligence Ministry officials at a meeting that the mass ...
Twenty-Year Old On Death Row After “Confessing” on Promise of Freedom
Death Sentence for Posting “Anti-Islamic” Content on Social Media Sina Dehghan was just 19-years-old when the Revolutionary Guards told him, while they were interrogating him, that if he confessed to the ...
Hospitalized Christian Convert Ordered Back to Prison
Imprisoned Christian convert Maryam (Nasim) Naghash Zargaran, who has been hospitalized since August 21, 2016 for heart problems, has been denied an extension of her medical ...
Five-Year Prison Sentence for Dual National Casts Shadow Over Iran’s Opening to World
Nazanin Zaghari Ratcliffe’s Sentence Announced Two Weeks Before Rouhani Comes to NY September 12, 2016—The five-year prison sentence for Nazanin Zaghari Ratcliffe, a dual citizen of Iran and the UK who has been inside Iranian prisons ...
Journalist’s Prison Sentence Reduced to Two Years, with Two-Year Ban on Reporting
The 10-year prison sentence of newspaper columnist Afarin Chitsaz has been reduced to two years on appeal and she has been banned from practicing journalism for two years according to the ruling issued ...
Head of Iranian Judiciary’s Human Rights Council Defends Wave of Executions
In less than a month, between August 2 and August 27, 2016, at least 37 prisoners were executed in Iran. Shortly afterwards, the head of the Iranian Judiciary’s Human Rights Council, Mohammad Javad Larijani, ...
More Than 100 Prominent Iranians Ask UN to Declare 1988 Massacre “Crime Against Humanity”
This article has been updated on September 12, 2016 to reflect the correct number of original signatories. In a letter to the United Nations Human Rights Council and the International Criminal Court, more than one ...
Iran’s Security Establishment is Targeting the Students of an Imprisoned Spiritual Leader
Vahid Pourtahmasb is the fifth student of Mohammad Ali Taheri to have been arrested since 2015. Another student of imprisoned spiritual group leader Mohammad Ali Taheri has been arrested, this ...
Judiciary Summons Woman for Seeking Answers About Infant Niece’s Disappearance
Rahleh Rahemipour has been summoned to Evin Prison by the Judiciary and questioned for demanding answers about her missing infant niece, whom Rahemipour says disappeared after the baby was born in Evin Prison in ...
Christians, Including Pastor’s Son, Arrested at Picnic Near Tehran
A Christian and four Christian converts were arrested on August 26, 2016 by the Intelligence Ministry near Tehran, the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran has learned. “The five individuals and their ...
Unjustly Imprisoned Young Physicist Granted Conditional Release After Five Years
Omid Kokabee’s Release Comes After Months Struggling with Kidney Cancer That Was Left Untreated in Prison August 29, 2016—Imprisoned Iranian scientist Omid Kokabee, who spent more than five years ...
Recording on 1988 Prison Massacre Exposes Early Fissure in the Islamic Republic of Iran
The recently released audio recording of Grand Ayatollah Hosseinali Montazeri sharply denouncing the mass execution of political prisoners in the summer of 1988 has highlighted disagreements among ...
Judiciary Blocking Compensation for False Arrests
High Number of False Arrests Would Require Large Payout More than a year after Iran’s new Code of Criminal Procedure went into effect, the Judiciary is ...
Elderly Pro-Democracy Activist Sentenced to Four Years in Prison
The four-year prison sentence handed down to imprisoned author and peaceful political activist Kourosh Zaim has no legal basis and the 77-year-old should be immediately released because of his advanced age, his lawyer Giti Pourfazel told the International Campaign for Human Rights in ...