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October 12, 2016

Woman Sentenced to 6 years in Prison for Unpublished Story and Facebook Posts Rejects Prison Summons

Co-Defendants Forced to Unexpectedly Begin Prison Sentences Four months after her husband was unexpectedly forced to begin serving his 19-year ...

October 11, 2016

Imprisoned Editor Hospitalized After 18-Day Hunger Strike

Open Letter Disproves Judicial Claim About Prisoners’ Rights Imprisoned newspaper editor Ehsan Mazandarani, who recently wrote an ...

October 10, 2016

Former Political Prisoner Transported from Workplace to Prison Without Summons

Former political prisoner Navid Kamran has been transported to Evin Prison in Tehran to begin serving a one-year prison ...

October 5, 2016

Imprisoned Journalist Begins Hunger Strike on Hospital Bed

Hospitalized political prisoner and prominent reformist journalist Issa Saharkhiz began a hunger strike on October 2, 2016, to convince the authorities to grant him conditional release. “My father is legally eligible for conditional ...

October 4, 2016

More Than 150 Members of Iran’s Parliament Call for Ending Execution of Petty Drug Traffickers

The majority of Iran’s MPs have signed a proposal to amend a current law that would make it harder to ...

October 4, 2016

Rouhani Press Bills Would Further Erode Press Freedom in Iran

Experts Suspect Intelligence Establishment’s Direct Influence The government of President Hassan Rouhani is preparing to introduce two bills to Parliament that media experts and journalists say could further erode press ...

October 3, 2016

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Push Harsh Prison Sentences for Activists

Cases Expose Judiciary’s Lack of Independence In another example of the Iranian Judiciary’s lack of independence, an Appeals Court has upheld disproportionate ...

September 30, 2016

Imprisoned Journalist Denied Knee Operation

Pattern of Denied Medical Care Continues in Iranian Prisons Imprisoned newspaper columnist Afarin Chitsaz urgently needs a knee ...

September 29, 2016

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 ...

September 29, 2016

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 ...

September 28, 2016

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 ...

September 28, 2016

Iran’s Foreign Minister Says Judiciary is Responsible for Detained Dual Nationals

Zarif Hopes Their Situation Can Be "Resolved Amicably" Iran’s Foreign Minister Javad Zarif said he hoped the situation of detained dual nationals in Iran could be “resolved amicably,” adding that the office of ...

September 28, 2016

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 ...

September 27, 2016

Baha’i Student Expelled and Banned from University for His Faith

Iranian authorities have ignored requests to reinstate a student expelled from a university because of his faith. Nineteen-year-old Faraz Karin-Kani Sisan was expelled from ...

September 22, 2016

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 ...

September 20, 2016

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 ...

September 20, 2016

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 ...

September 19, 2016

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 ...

September 14, 2016

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 ...

September 14, 2016

Cartoon 154: Bandwidth

In a meeting with the Minister of Communications, conservative cleric Ayatollah Nasser Makarem Shirazi recommended allocating the bandwidth used by the popular networking ...

September 14, 2016

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 ...

September 13, 2016

Translator in Prison for One Year Without Knowing Charges; Her Lawyer Denied Access to Case File

Translator Marjan Davari has been held in Evin Prison’s Women’s Ward for almost a year without knowing the formal ...

September 13, 2016

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, ...

September 12, 2016

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 ...

September 9, 2016