Children of the Jacaranda Tree, by Sahar Delijani, is a stunning debut novel set in post-Revolutionary Iran. Told in interconnected, alternating perspectives, the book follows three generations of men and women, some linked by family, others brought together by the tide of history that forces its way into their lives. ...
Iran's new president Hassan Rouhani nominated Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi for the post of justice minister on August 4, 2013. Rights groups have implicated Pour-Mohammadi in abuses that may constitute crimes against humanity, including the executions ...
Iran’s new president, Hassan Rouhani, should immediately withdraw his nomination of Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi for the post of justice minister, Reporters Without Borders, the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, and Human Rights Watch said today. Rouhani presented the list of his nominees for cabinet posts to the Iranian parliament during his inauguration ceremony on ...
With the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the death sentences of four young Arab men from Ahvaz on charges of “moharebeh” (enmity with God) and “corruption on earth,” the prisoners are currently in danger of imminent execution at Karoon Prison in Ahvaz. The four Arab citizens and their families were informed of the Supreme Court’s ...
Since the arrests of several Khuzestan Province civil activists in Ahvaz in April, no information has been available on the conditions of Adel Seymari, Majid Bavi, and Mohammad Jaberi, a source told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran. ...
In reaction to the Medical Examiner’s Office’s final opinion stating that Sattar Beheshti’s cause of death could not have been blows while in detention, his mother recently demanded for his body to be exhumed to determine his real cause of death. ...
The Head of the Iranian Medical Examiner’s Office said on Tuesday, July 9, that according to his organization’s final report, the blows dealt to blogger Sattar Beheshti during his interrogation were not fatal and could not have caused his death, Mehr News Agency reported. Dr. Ahmad Shojaee also told Mehr that in the Medical ...
A lower court ruling in the Kahrizak case issued yesterday indicates that the three suspects in the case were permanently dismissed from judicial positions, and further dismissed from government employment for five years. To the astonishment of observers, Saeed Mortazavi, the prime suspect in the case, was acquitted from the charge of “participation in murder,” ...
Sixty-three political prisoners inside Ward 4, Hall 12, of Rajaee Shahr Prison in Karaj wrote a message of condolences to the family of Afshin Osanloo for the political prisoner’s death. The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran received the message for publication. ...
The lawyer for Sattar Beheshti, a blogger who died in November 2012 while in the custody of the Iranian Cyber Police (FATA), said her client’s case has not been forwarded to court and objected to the eight-month delay in an interview with the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran. ...
Following rumors that prisoner of conscience Arash Sadeghi had died in prison, his former lawyer told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran that he is alive, though the lawyer refused to answer questions about whether Sadeghi had been beaten in prison. Sadeghi’s former cellmate told the Campaign no prisoners have seen him, and ...
Political activist Saeed Madani has been sentenced to six years in prison in exile in Bandar Abbas. Mansoureh Ettefagh, the wife of the social researcher and visiting professor, expressed shock at the harsh sentence and the charges themselves in an interview with the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran. ...
The family of deceased prisoner of conscience Afshin Osanloo has requested that the Medical Examiner investigate his cause of death, his sister told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran. Osanloo’s official cause of death on June 20, 2013, has been listed as a heart attack, but his sister Fereshteh Osanloo said he did ...
At Rajaee Shahr Prison in Karaj, 20 Sunni prisoners, facing charges such as “acting against national security” for their proselytizing activities, have been convicted of “moharebeh” [enmity with God], a capital crime, and face an unsuitable atmosphere in prison where they are constantly disrespected by prison forces for their beliefs, a source with knowledge of ...
The eleventh and final session of the trial for the deaths in Kahrizak Prison of three detainees in 2009 was held on Wednesday, May 22. Though the judge has not yet announced the adjournment of the trial, the lawyers told the press that the defendants had issued their last defense and there would be no ...
The tenth session of the trial of former Tehran Prosecutor Saeed Mortazavi and two other officials for the deaths in Kahrizak Prison of three detainees in 2009 opened yesterday with the father of one of the victims withdrawing his “participation in murder” suit against Mortazavi. The eleventh and final session of the trial is being ...
On May 8, 2013, world-famous political satirist Jon Stewart of The Daily Show held a discussion about censorship and power in Iran, followed by a lively Q&A, at an event hosted by the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, the Committee to Protect Journalists, and the PEN American Center. ...
A Kurdish political prisoner sentenced to death has been transferred back to Orumiyeh Central Prison after spending 15 months inside the Semnan Central Prison, a local source told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran. Habibollah Golparipour had been transferred from Semnan Central Prison to an undisclosed location in the second week of May. ...
The eighth trial session of judges implicated in the Kahrizak Detention Center case was held on Monday, May 13 at Branch 76 of Tehran Penal Court under Judge Siamak Modir Khorasani. As in the previous seven sessions, the court session was held behind closed doors. Saeed Mortazavi, the main suspect charged with “participation in murder,” ...
More than six months after the prison death of Sattar Beheshti, a laborer and blogger from Robat Karim (17 miles outside Tehran) who was arrested on November 3, 2012, and died the next day, his mother and sister have not been able to face in court the men who murdered the 35-year-old man under torture ...
Christian pastor Saeed Abedini was conducting a routine visit to the non-profit orphanage his family helped to start in Rasht when Iranian security forces arrested him and seized his passport in July 2012. Five months later, Iranian courts convicted him of “undermining national security,” accusing him and other Christian converts of waging a “soft war” ...
Unidentified security forces have been threatening Sahar Beheshti with imprisonment or death if she speaks out about the case of her brother Sattar, a blogger who died while undergoing interrogation in a police detention center in November 2012. Sahar Beheshti is refusing to keep silent. “We only want the formation of a fair court with a ...
The sister of Sattar Beheshti, a blogger who died while undergoing interrogation in a police detention center in November 2012, has been receiving constant death threats to remain silent about his case, she told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran. Five months after his death, the investigation into his death has still not ...
An Orumiyeh Penal Court found a Kurdish political prisoner guilty last week of murdering two Revolutionary Guards members, though no evidence, witnesses, nor confessions were presented in the case, a local activist told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran. The prisoner, Ali Ahmad Soleiman, had previously completed a six-year prison term on political ...
Six Arab-Iranian prisoners have been on hunger strike at Ahvaz’s Karoon Prison since March 3 in protest of the judicial process in their cases and their extreme sentences, a cousin of two of the prisoners told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran. Five of the prisoners have been sentenced to death, the sixth ...