Labor Activists Put on Trial After Hundreds of Workers Protest Unpaid Wages
Labor activists Jafar Azimzadeh and Shapour Ehsani-Rad have been put on trial for allegedly inciting workers to strike. The first day of ...
Unfair Trials
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 time in ...
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 in Evin ...
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 ...
Prominent Labor Activist’s Wife Awaits Verdict for Alleged Facebook Post
Najibeh Salehzadeh was never shown the “evidence” Najibeh Salehzadeh, who says she was falsely charged for posting “insulting” material on Facebook, is awaiting a verdict following her trial at Branch 1 ...
Reformist Journalist’s Prison Sentence Reduced on Appeal
The prison sentence of reformist journalist Ehsan (Saman) Safarzaei has been reduced from five to two years, the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran has learned. Safarzaei’s lawyer, Iman Mirzadeh, confirmed ...
Imprisoned Epileptic Journalist Denied Request for Early Release
Reformist Writer Has Not Had Access to His Lawyer Since 2014 Imprisoned reformist journalist Ahmad Asgari, who suffers from severe epilepsy, has been denied early conditional release and medical furlough...
Charges Against Iranian-American Reflect Iran’s Lasting Paranoia over Mass Protests of 2009
Detained Iranian-American Robin (Reza) Shahini has been formally charged with “acting against national security,” “participating in protest gatherings in 2009,” “collaborating with Voice of America (VOA) television” ...
Rights groups condemn recent execution of Kurdish prisoners and call for an immediate moratorium on all executions in Iran
Geneva - Iranian authorities must immediately put a halt to the execution of Kurdish political prisoners and prisoners of conscience, 22 human rights organizations stated. These organizations also urged for an immediate moratorium on the death ...
Sunni Cleric Charged with Anti-State Activities for Criticizing Mass Execution
Hassan Amini, a Sunni cleric and Islamic judge based in Sanandaj, the capital of Iran’s Kurdistan Province, has been interrogated and charged for criticizing the recent mass ...
Rouhani Battles Religious Hardliners Over Concert Cancellations in Iran
A simmering battle between the government of President Hassan Rouhani and hardline religious figures over music concerts is playing out in northeastern Iran. Most recently, Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli questioned the ...
Iran’s Intelligence Ministry Tries to Hide Evidence of Massacre of Thousands of Political Prisoners in 1988
Recording of Ayatollah Montazeri’s Plea to Stop the Executions is Taken Off Website An audio file of Grand Ayatollah Hosseinali Montazeri—the once successor to Iran’s first supreme leader—bitterly criticizing the Islamic Republic’s mass execution of political prisoners ...
Man Imprisoned for Facebook Posts Seeks Reduced Sentence
Soheil Arabi, whose death sentence for “insulting the prophet” was struck down by Iran’s Supreme Court in 2015 but remains imprisoned for posting comments critical of the Islamic Republic on social ...
Five Prisoners Hanged in Iran in Accelerating Rate of Executions
Hangings Follow Twenty Prisoners Executed Last Week Five prisoners were hanged inside Iran’s Orumiyeh Central Prison in West Azerbaijan Province on the morning of August 8, ...
Cartoon 152: Executions in Iran
Iranian cartoonist Touka Neyestani's take on the recent surge in prison executions in Iran....
Names of Mass Execution Victims in Iran Still Not Released
Only 10 of the 20 Sunni Prisoners Killed Are Identified by Authorities Iran is withholding the names of ten of the twenty Sunni prisoners who were executed in Rajaee Shahr Prison in ...
Iran Executes Kurdish Prisoner despite Claim of Forced Confession
As Many As 20 Others May Have Been Executed Too Kurdish prisoner Shahram Ahmadi was hanged in the courtyard of Iran’s Rajaee Shahr Prison today, August 2, 2016, at 4:53 p.m., according to a member of his ...
Lawyers Still Languishing in Jails in Iran for Defending Dissidents Under Rouhani’s Watch
Campaign Pledges Three Years Ago to Free Political Prisoners Now Ring Hollow Dozens of human rights lawyers who have been imprisoned for years in Iran for defending civil rights and political prisoners, remain behind bars three years ...
Ninety-two Student Groups in Iran Criticize Rouhani for Unfulfilled Promises
Ninety-two university student groups have issued a joint letter to President Hassan Rouhani criticizing the persistent “atmosphere of fear and intimidation” in Iran’s universities following a spate ...
Cartoon 150: Cause of Death
The untimely July 4 death of prominent Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami in Paris, following several unsuccessful operations between March and July 2016 in Iran, has raised public debate and government attention to issues never addressed before. Iranian citizens and even government officials have been ...
Reformist Newspaper Editor’s Prison Sentence Reduced on Appeal
The seven-year prison sentence of reformist newspaper editor Ehsan Mazandarani has been reduced to two years on appeal, his brother-in-law Sam Hosseini told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran. “We are happy that the Appeals ...
150 Boys and Girls Arrested in Crackdown on Co-ed Parties
One hundred fifty young girls and boys were arrested for attending an “inappropriate mixed-gender” birthday party near the city of Tehran, according to an announcement by the police commander of western Tehran province. The arrests are the latest in ...
Iran’s Intelligence Ministry Interferes in Case of Imprisoned Christian
Case Exposes Judiciary’s Lack of Independence Iran’s Intelligence Ministry has directly interfered in the case of imprisoned Christian convert Maryam (Nasim) Naghash Zargaran...