(Paris, London, New York, October 31, 2012) Iran’s judiciary and prison authorities should end mistreatment of the prominent rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh, Nobel peace laureate Shirin Ebadi and six human rights organizations said today. Ebadi and the rights groups also called on Iran’s authorities to allow all prisoners access to necessary medical care and ...
“For every day [journalists] spend in jail, Iran suffers a reputational problem somewhere in the world,” UN Special Rapporteur Ahmed Shaheed said in an exclusive interview with the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran. “I signify … a heightened sense of caring by the international community about the plight of people in Iran.” ...
Nasrin Sotoudeh, a prominent Iranian lawyer, has dedicated her life to fighting for human rights and defending prisoners of conscience in Iran. For her work, she was recently awarded the European Parliament’s prestigious Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought. For her work, she is serving a six-year prison sentence on charges of “acting against national ...
The European Parliament today awarded its prestigious Sakharov Prize for human rights and freedom of thought to imprisoned Iranian lawyer and human rights defender Nasrin Sotoudeh and prominent filmmaker Jafar Panahi. Both awardees have been sentenced to long prison sentences in Iran and bans on travel and their careers because of their opposition to the ...
“Siavash has lost a lot of weight and does not have a good psychological state. He is 24. He was a graduate student when he was abruptly banned from continuing his education, and then he was imprisoned. The month-long solitary confinement, loneliness, his education ban, and his uncertain future have all made him depressed. He ...
Protesting her prison conditions, Nasrin Sotoudeh embarked on a wet hunger strike beginning on Wednesday, October 17. Iranian Judiciary officials have not yet reacted to Sotoudeh’s demands. Nasrin Sotoudeh is objecting to her 12-year-old daughter’s travel ban and summons to court, the authorities’ refusal to allow her visitation with her mother for the past year, ...
Earlier this year, in July, Javad Larijani stated, “There are no political prisoners inside the Islamic Republic of Iran.” Just last week, on October 17, Larijani’s brother Sadeq Larijani, Iran’s Head of Judiciary, claimed, “No one is executed in Iran for their political convictions.” ...
In the seven months since Iranian-American Amir Hekmati’s death sentence was overturned in Tehran, Iranian officials have ignored his family’s requests for information and has failed to schedule his retrial. Since his arrest, Hekmati’s father has been diagnosed with an aggressive and potentially fatal brain cancer and has been unable to travel to Iran to ...
Just over three years ago, three young Americans—Sarah Shourd, Shane Bauer and Joshua Fattal—were taken into custody by Iranian border guards while hiking in Iraqi Kurdistan. Though the young Americans’ case was widely believed to be political theater, Iranian authorities insisted they had illegally crossed over into Iranian territory in order to commit espionage; charges ...
“On Monday, August 27, Mohammad Nazari sent a letter to judicial authorities objecting to his conditions and stating that over the past several years, his family has pursued his case in the Revolutionary Courts in Mahabad and Orumiyeh and with the Supreme Leader’s Office, and each time they have been told that he would be ...
Omid Kokabi, 30, is a scientist who graduated from Tehran’s Sharif University. At the time of his arrest at Tehran’s Imam Khomeini Airport as he intended to board a flight, he was a post-doctoral student at University of Texas at Austin. Kokabi was kept in solitary confinement for months and his family and his lawyer ...
According to research, conducted by the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, there are currently at least 28 Kurdish prisoners sentenced to death on political and security-related charges inside Sanandaj, Orumiyeh, Semnan, Rajaee Shahr, and Saghez prisons. Seventeen of these individuals have received finalized death sentences and 11 have been sentenced to death at ...
“Narges’ illness is muscle paralysis, but they first transferred her to Zanjan Hospital’s Neurology Department. Two days ago, they transferred her to another hospital, to Shahid Beheshti Hospital in Zanjan, where she has been hospitalized in their Neurology Department. These are all sources of concern for us,” said Mohammadi’s husband. “We demand that Narges be ...
Farideh Honarvar Shojayee told the Campaign she that during her booth visit with her son on June 30, “Arash’s health was very bad. Though they have been giving him his medicine, more or less, for the last few days, but he is not well yet. The hunger strike has also affected his health. He has ...
On the anniversary of Haleh Sahabi’s death, her brother Hamed Sahabi spoke with the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran about the yearlong silence and the slow progress of the case with the Judiciary. Haleh Sahabi, daughter of Dr. Ezzatollah Sahabi, underwent a cardiac arrest on 1 June 2011 at her father’s funeral after being ...
Just prior to his release, Kasra Nouri, a member of the Gonabadi Dervish order, was ordered to remain in prison, his mother, Shokoofeh Yadollahi told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran. “Following the efforts of the lawyer and the family, Kasra was supposed to have been released last week, but, unfortunately, on orders ...
Shirkoo Moarefi, a Kurdish political prisoner on death row, has embarked on hunger strike to protest his ambiguous legal status in prison. Saeed Sheikhi, Moarefi’s lawyer, told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran that the Supreme Court unlawfully took on his client’s case. ...
As the Iranian Judiciary continues to reschedule prominent human rights defender Mohammad Seifzadeh’s trial, he continues to refuse to attend the session. His wife and lawyer, Fatemeh Golzar, told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran that his refusal is based on his distrust in the court’s competence. “As per Mr. Seifzadeh’s request, I ...
Hossein Kamangar, a resident of Kamyaran and relative of executed Kurdish teacher Farzad Kamangar, is currently in an ambiguous legal state, a local source told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran. In January 2012, a security organization summoned Kamangar to appear, where authorities detained him in Kermanshah’s Intelligence Office Detention Center. ...
“Mr. Seifzadeh will not appear at this court session again for the same reason as before–he does not recognize the Revolutionary Court as qualified to review this case. He believes he should be tried in the Tehran Province Criminal Court, in the presence of a jury qualified to review press and political charges. As in ...
Iranian Delegate Responds Angrily Without Addressing Report's Content Head of Iran's Human Rights Council Mohammad Javad Larijani delivers his opening statements at today's Human Rights Council (Reporting ...
Expressing grave concern about her brother’s conditions, Maryam Malekpour told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran that her family has had no news about her brother Saeed Malekpour, whose death sentence was forwarded to the Iranian Judiciary’s Sentence Enforcement Unit in February 2012. ...
Most of us remember President Ahmadinejad’s infamous 2007 comment that homosexuals do not exist in Iran. In this Weekly Rights Podcast, we talk to Hossein Alizadeh, the Middle East and North Africa Program Coordinator for the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission. Hossein talks about what it’s like to be gay in Iran, and ...
What does the recent increase in the arrests of journalists in Iran have to do with the upcoming parliamentary elections in Iran? Mehrad Vaezinejad, a Middle East analyst based in London, explains that the two are actually related. We also speak with Niousha Masoumi, a friend of Parastoo Dokouhaki, a recently arrested journalist, who tells ...