The use of prisoners as bargaining chips in order to coerce other governments to provide concessions is a cruel policy” A group of prominent academics, policy experts, former government officials, parliamentarians and diplomats released a statement on September 15, 2020, calling on the Government of Iran to ...
Champion Wrestler Executed despite Evidence of Torture and Innocence September 12, 2020—The execution of Navid Afkari, the 27-year-old champion wrestler, by hanging at sunrise today in the southern Iranian city of Shiraz, demonstrates the Iranian judiciary’s complete disregard for law, justice and international standards of due process. The ...
Imprisonment of Lawyers and Human Rights Defenders, Juvenile Executions, Singled Out for Condemnation In the latest report by the UN’s top expert on Iran, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, Javaid Rehman, expressed “alarm” and “dismay” over ...
“The unjust sentences of political prisoners…may turn into death sentences if urgent action is not taken.” International pressure on Iran to release imprisoned human rights lawyers Nasrin Sotoudeh and Amirsalar Davoodi, both behind bars in the country’s Evin Prison for their peaceful defense of basic civil and political rights, has ...
Lawyer for Navid Afkari: Video Footage Proves He Did Not Commit Alleged Crime “There is not one shred of evidence ... they are looking for a neck for their rope” September 2, 2020—The Iranian wrestling champion Navid Afkari has been sentenced to death for allegedly killing a security man ...
Keyvan Samimi Sees Worsening Fear and Repression in Iran The veteran journalist and political activist Keyvan Samimi must report to Evin Prison to begin serving a three-year prison sentence for his peaceful activism and reporting. On August 21, Samimi posted a screenshot of an electronic summons from ...
Jafar Azimzadeh Should Have Been Released, Instead Given Another 13 Months Now Activist Has Contracted COVID-19 in Iran’s Overcrowded Prisons The prominent labor activist Jafar Azimzadeh, who should have been released from prison in February 2020 as part of a broad state-issued pardon and who has since ...
Evidence Contradicting Guilt Ignored in Effort to Cover Up Security Forces’ Culpability July 31, 2020—Death sentences against five men arrested in Isfahan Province, central Iran, in connection with nationwide protests during December 2017-January 2018, have been upheld by the Supreme Court, a source with knowledge about ...
Scholar Held at Gharchak Prison Alongside Violent Criminals July 28, 2020—The Australian academic Kylie Moore-Gilbert, who has been imprisoned in Iran on spurious charges since October 2018, has been moved to the notoriously harsh Gharchak Prison, south of Tehran, the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) ...
Alireza Alinejad Convicted on Sham National Security Charges and “Insulting” Supreme Leader July 16, 2020—Alireza Alinejad, the brother of Iranian activist Masih Alinejad, has been sentenced to eight years in prison, under sham charges that reflect Iran’s continuing persecution of the family members of critics of the state. Alireza's ...
Farsi version Farsi version (PDF) GENEVA (16 July 2020) – UN human rights experts today strongly condemned the decision to uphold death sentences against three men for participating in protests in November 2019. The three – Amir Hossein Moradi, Saeed Tamjidi, and Mohammad Rajabi – ...
Both Executed without Notifying Their Families or Lawyers Politically Motivated Executions in Iran Continue to Increase Despite serious questions regarding evidence of guilt, two Kurdish political prisoners, Diako Rasoulzadeh and Saber Sheikh-Abdollah, were executed in the Central Prison in Oroumiyeh, western Iran, on July 14, 2020. The two men were ...