Mother Puts All Hope in Appeals Court to Free Son
“How can a young man who worked hard for Rouhani’s presidential campaign, ‘wage propaganda’ and ‘act against the state’?” That is the question Mina Dena has been repeating to Judge Moghisseh at ...
Unfair Trials
Ground Shifts as 70 MPs in Iran Introduce Bill to End Executions for Drug Crimes
More than 70 Members of the Iranian Parliament have presented a bill that, if ratified by the full legislature and approved by the Council of Guardians (the constitutional body charged with approving legislation), could reduce the punishment for ...
Arrested Journalists Held Incommunicado for Over a Month while Officials Make Baseless Claims
More than a month after his arrest, the prominent reformist journalist Issa Saharkhiz has not contacted his family and judicial authorities have not commented on his status, his son Mehdi Saharkhiz told the International ...
Ninety Journalists Call for Release of Four Arrested Colleagues
Ninety Iranian journalists have signed a statement calling for the release of four of their colleagues arrested a month ago by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Intelligence Organization: Issa Saharkhiz, Ehsan Mazandarani, Saman Safarzaie, and ...
Kurdish Filmmaker’s Appeal Request Accepted; Colleagues Voice Support
Documentary filmmaker Keyvan Karimi’s request for an appeal against a six-year prison sentence for “insulting the sacred” has been accepted, a source close to the case told the International Campaign ...
Five Prison Inmates on Hunger Strike to Protest Knife Attack against Two Political Prisoners
Prison Officials Refuse to Remove Attackers from Ward Two political prisoners, Saeed Madani and Saeed Razavi Faghih, were attacked with ...
Rouhani Administration Continues Ban on Popular Musician
Hossein Zaman Singer-songwriter Hossein Zaman, who has been banned from performing for nearly ten years and lost his university teaching post due to his political views, ...
Imprisoned Children’s Rights Activist Denied Bail
Saeed Shirzad Saeed Shirzad, a children’s rights activist sentenced to five years in prison, has been denied bail during the appeal process, a source close to ...
Untreated Kidney Stones Sends Imprisoned Physicist Omid Kokabee to Hospital
Imprisoned physicist Omid Kokabee was transferred to Taleghani Hospital in Tehran on November 24, 2015, suffering from severe kidney stones, a source told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran. For the ...
Cartoon 130: Infiltration
Hardliners in Iran’s Parliament, Judiciary, and Revolutionary Guards are intensifying a broad crackdown on supporters of human rights and free elections, in a campaign underpinned by supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei’s assertion that the US seeks ...
Political Prisoner’s Health Deteriorating as His Hunger Strike Enters Fourth Week
The political prisoner Majid Azarpey is in extremely poor health since beginning a wet hunger strike (refusing solid foods) in Evin Prison on November 3, 2015 to protest his sentence. Azarpey’s mother, ...
Journalist’s One-Year Prison Sentence and Two-Year Ban on Media Upheld
Reyhaneh Tabatabaie Facebook Posts and Reformist Affiliations Are Her “Crimes” The journalist Reyhaneh Tabatabaie, 35, has been informed that the Appeals Court has approved her ...
Cartoon 129: For Imprisoned Cartoonist Hadi Heidari
Security forces arrested the prominent Iranian cartoonist Hadi Heidari in his office at Shahrvand Daily in Tehran today, November 16, 2015. Two co-workers of Heidari at the Tehran daily confirmed the arrest and ...
Journalist Sentenced to Three Years in Prison for Her Facebook Posts
Solmaz Ikdar The journalist Solmaz Ikdar has been sentenced to three years in prison for “insulting the Supreme Leader” and “propaganda against the state.” The charges were ...
Fifteen Baha’is Arrested by Rouhani’s Intelligence Ministry
In a fresh crackdown on Iran’s Baha’i community, one of the most persecuted religious minorities in Iran, 15 followers of the faith were simultaneously arrested in Tehran, Isfahan, and Mashhad on November 15, 2015, by ...
Women Drivers Not Wearing Hijab Face Tough Police Action
Cars driven by women who do not observe the hijab (head covering for women) will be impounded and fines will be imposed, according to strict new regulations by Iran’s police force. In addition, ...
Prisoner of Conscience on Hunger Strike Transferred to Clinic as His Condition Worsens
Fourteen days after prisoner of conscience Ali Shariati embarked on a hunger strike to protest the judicial process of his case, he remains on strike inside Evin Prison. His condition was defined as “very worrying” ...
Cartoon 127: Who Will be Arrested Tomorrow?
Reacting to the recent arrests of Iranian journalists by the IRGC, and extensive articles on the subject on ultra-conservative media such as Kayhan and Fars News Agency, the Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said during ...
Cartoon 126: Khamenei’s Green Light for Press Crackdown
Several journalists were arrested in Iran over the past week in an intensifying campaign of repression that is based on the belief, spearheaded by Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei, that the US intends to ...
Sunni Kurd Faces Imminent Execution for His Activism
Shahram Ahmadi Shahram Ahmadi has been sentenced to death in Iran due to his activism as a Sunni Muslim and a Kurd. Members of ethnic ...
Arrests Gather Pace in Iran after Khamenei Gives Green Light for Crackdown
Fear of Post-Nuclear Deal Rapprochement with West Drives Intensified Repression November 9, 2015—Several journalists were arrested in Iran over the past week in an intensifying campaign of repression that is based on ...
Prominent Reformist Journalist Arrested for “Insulting Supreme Leader”
The political journalist Issa Saharkhiz has been arrested on charges of “intending to disrupt national security,” “propaganda against the state,” and “insulting the Supreme Leader,” according to his son Mehdi. ...
Washington Post OpEd: Free Omid Kokabee, another Iranian prisoner of conscience
By Herbert L. Berk October 30 Herbert L. Berk is chairman of the American Physical Society’s Committee ...
Clerical Battles over Legally Sanctioned Retaliatory Killings and Stoning Continues in Iran
Controversy over Strict Adherence to Islamic Law Dates Back to 1979 Revolution A battle over the necessity of strict adherence to Islamic law, including Quranic punishments that in modern times have been designated by the UN ...