Iran: over 23 years behind bars for protesters of Evin Prison raid

Six individuals who took part in rallies outside the president’s office back in late April 2014 protesting a vicious attack on prisoners of ward 350 in the notorious Evin Prison in the incident known as “Black Thursday”, have been sentenced to a total of 23 years and 9 months behind bars. This ruling was issued by Judge Salavati, head of the 15th branch of Tehran’s revolution court. Amongst these seven individuals Milad Pour-Issa has been sentenced to 6¼ years in jail, while all others were sentenced to 3½ years behind bars.

Iran: five family members in prison

Five members of the Abadian family are behind bars. Despite all the continuous promises, Zahedan court is refusing to release the members of this family on bail. Malak Mohammad, Javad, Hadi, Abdullah and Jaber Abadian, along with Gol Mohammad Balide’i, Nezamedin Mullazadeh, Molavi Abdullah Mullahzadeh (Sunni Friday prayer imam of the town of Paroud), Molavi Fat’hi Mohammad Naghshbandi (Sunni Friday prayer imam), Rasek Molavi and Molavi Abdul-ghafar Naghshbandi (deputy Friday prayer imam of the town of Rasek) were detained back in February 2012 for measures against national security. 
According to Ms. Nasrin Abadian, the daughter of this family, her father was first arrest, then three of her brothers, her husband, uncle and cousins, and they were all interrogated under horrendous pressures and torture to place pressure on her arrested father.

Revolutionary Guards target Internet activists

Reporters Without Borders reiterates its condemnation of the Iranian regime’s persecution of journalists and bloggers after a wave of arrests of Internet users in recent days as a result of Revolutionary Guard monitoring of online social networks.
On 8 June, judicial system spokesman Golamhossien Mohsseni Ejehi announced the arrests of “several individuals” for social network activity regarded as “actions against national security.”
Two years of President Hassan Rouhani 
In the two years since the moderate conservative Hassan Rouhani was installed as president in June 2013, around 100 Internet activists have been arrested and given long jail terms, in most cases on information provided by the Revolutionary Guards.
This persecution of news and information providers is just the continuation of the unprecedented crackdown that began immediately after PresidentMahmoud Ahmadinejad ’s disputed reelection in June 2009, when at least 300 journalists and Internet activists were arrested arbitrarily, tortured and sentenced to long terms of imprisonment.
But this persecution is also a weapon in the power struggle being waged among the various government factions, a weapon used to keep constant pressure on President Rouhani, who was elected thanks to the support of progressives and who, during his campaign, promised the “release of all political prisoners” and more “free speech and media freedom.”
Several journalists and Internet activists who were convicted in 2009 and 2010 by rigged revolutionary courts have since been released on completing their sentences but many others are still in prison, where they are often subjected to appalling conditions.
Furthermore, journalists are no longer able to work after completing their jail terms, regardless of whether their sentences included a post-release “ban on practicing the profession of journalist.”
Many newspaper executives and editors are given clear instructions not to hire them. One way or another, the regime prevents most independent journalists from working. Two journalists were recently fired from a media outlet by one of President Rouhani’s associates solely because they had been imprisoned.
Iran is ranked 173rd out of 180 countries in the 2015 Reporters Without Borders press freedom index.

Published on Monday 22 June 2015.

U.N. chief calls on Security Council to take action on Syria

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on the U.N. Security Council to take “urgent action” on Syria amid daily atrocities and rights abuses, warning the war-torn country would otherwise slip deeper into chaos.
In his monthly report to the council on Syria aid access, seen by Reuters on Wednesday, Ban did not specify action, but his former aid chief Valerie Amos appealed in April for an arms embargo and sanctions for violations of humanitarian law.
“I also ask the council to take urgent action in the face of the continuing atrocities and human rights abuses taking place in Syria on a daily basis, “ Ban wrote in the June 23 report. “ Lack of action will throw Syria deeper into chaos and deprive the country of a peaceful and prosperous future.”
The council failed last year to refer the four-year war in Syria to the International Criminal Court for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Syrian ally Russia, backed by China, vetoed the move and three other resolutions threatening President Bashar al-Assad’s government with sanctions.
Ban said some 12.2 million people in Syria need help, including more than 5 million children. About 7.6 million are internally displaced and more than 4 million have fled to neighboring countries and North Africa.
U.N. Syria mediator Staffan de Mistura will continue consultations with parties to the conflict into July and Ban described the goal of finding a political solution to the conflict as “ambitious, but we must not lose sight of it.” A Syrian government crackdown on a pro-democracy movement in 2011 led to an armed uprising. Islamic State militants have taken advantage of the chaos to declare a caliphate in Syria and Iraq.
Ban said some 422,000 people in Syria remained besieged - 228,000 by Islamic State, 167,500 by government forces and 26,500 by armed groups.
“Islamic State continued to violate international humanitarian law and commit human rights abuses,” Ban said.
He said on May 5 the United Nations received reports that Islamic State crucified and killed a 15-year-old boy after accusing him of stealing money and weapons from a vehicle, while a man was reportedly beheaded for theft on May 14.
Ban said he was also concerned the Syrian government “continues to indiscriminately drop barrel bombs on defenseless civilians in populated neighborhoods”.

Reuters, 24 June 2015

Iran imprisonment marks grim milestone

American Pastor Saeed Abedini has now spent 1,000 days in captivity in Iran – nearly three years suffering in prison – separated from his wife, Naghmeh, and their two young children.
No one could have imagined that he would be imprisoned this long when he was taken into custody by Iranian regime in 2012 simply because of his Christian faith.  Pastor Saeed was in Iran working on an orphanage when he was unexpectedly taken into custody by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard.
In January 2013, Pastor Saeed was convicted of undermining the national security of Iran for gathering with Christians in private homes from 2000 to 2005.  He was sentenced to 8-years in prison.
Pastor Saeed has endured much in the past 1,000 days. He still suffers from physical injuries that require much-needed medical attention – injuries received from past beatings by prison guards. He also faces psychological torture and as recently as a couple of weeks ago – he received another round of beatings. 
What’s even more troubling, now that the U.S. is in the final stages of negotiating face-to-face with the Iranians to reach a nuclear deal by June 30th, there is growing concern that Pastor Saeed and three other Americans held hostage in Iran will be left behind bars if a deal is reached.
That concern is so real that members of Congress – who ultimately will approve or reject any deal with Iran – have passed resolutions in both the Senate and House – calling for the immediate release of Pastor Saeed Abedini. 
It is difficult to believe that the U.S. – which should be operating from a position of strength – has not secured the release of Pastor Saeed and the others.
Why won’t the U.S. demand that the captive Americans are freed and returned home before any nuclear deal with Iran is finalized?
It’s a question that puzzles Pastor Saeed’s family – a question that sadly remains unanswered.
The time to bring Pastor Saeed home is now.
Fox News, 23 June 2015

Iran regime amputates hands of two prisoners

File photo: Iranian regime unveils amputation machine in 2013

NCRI - The Iranian regime on Sunday amputated the hands of two prisoners in the central prison of Mashhad, northeast Iran.

One of the victims, identified only by the initials M. E., was a 26-year-old resident of Mashhad, the state-run daily Khorasan wrote on Monday. The second victim was not identified; the report simply stated that this young man was transferred from Khorasan Jonubi province to the same prison in Mashhad where the sentence was carried out.

State media claimed that the two men had been convicted of theft.

Last month, a high ranking Iranian cleric, who is the representative of the regime’s Supreme Leader in Hormozgan province (southern Iran), called for more inhumane punishments of hand amputations to be carried out.

While visiting Mashhad, Ghulam-Ali Naeem Abadi said: “If the hands of a few of those who commit theft in society are cut off, they would serve as examples for others and security will be restored.”

“Security would be restored in society by amputating a few fingers; why then are such punishments not being fully implemented?” he asked.

Last December, the United Nations General Assembly slammed the flagrant violations of human rights by the Iranian regime.

The resolution criticized the Iranian regime's use of inhuman punishments, including flogging and amputations.

The UN’s 61st resolution on human rights abuses in Iran also censured the mullahs’ dictatorship for the rise in executions, public hangings and the execution of juveniles.

The Iranian regime unveiled a terrifying device in 2013 which is uses to chop off fingers. The device that looks like something devised for a grisly horror movie operates as a circular saw that guillotines prisoners’ fingers.

Since Hassan Rouhani took office as president of the clerical regime, nearly 1,800 people have been executed and hundreds more have been subjected to degrading and inhumane punishments such as amputation, flogging in public and being paraded in streets.

The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) has repeatedly condemned the medieval punishments carried out by the clerical regime in Iran and has called for the referral of the regime's appalling human rights record to the UN Security Council.

IRAN: 92 arrested in restaurant during Ramadan

NCRI - Iranian security forces have raided a hotel restaurant and arrested 92 young men and women for eating and drinking ‘in public’ in the month of Ramadan.

The hotel in the northwestern city of Tabriz was raided on Monday. The restaurant manager along with 41 girls and 51 boys were arrested.

Ali Esmaeelpour, a senior state security forces official in the city, confirmed the arrests. Those detained were referred to the regime’s judiciary for sentencing.

Anyone in Iran caught eating or drinking in public during daytime in the month of Ramadan may receive 74 lashes in addition to a jail term of up to two months, judiciary officials of the regime have threatened.

Dadkhoda Salari, the prosecutor general in the city of Kerman, said last week: “Any individual who eats or drinks in public places could face a prison term of from 10 days to two months and 74 lashes,” the state-run Mehr news agency reported.

Another state-run news agency warned the public that special patrols have been stationed at streets and public parks in Tehran during the Ramadan to “deal with” those who drink, eat or smoke in public.

Last year hundreds of Iranians were lashed in public under the medieval laws of the religious dictatorship.

At least 200 people were flogged last year in the Iranian province of Qazvin for eating in public during Ramadan.

Last year Qazvin official Ismail Sadeghi-Niaraki acknowledged the scale of medieval punishments being carried out in the province by the regime under the rule of so-called 'moderate' president Hassan Rouhani.

He said: "[During Ramadan], 400 people were arrested and some were given warnings. Another 200 had their cases reviewed by the judiciary and the flogging sentence was carried out within 24 hours of their arrest."

Last year, a Christian man in Iran had his lips burnt with a cigarette for eating during the day in Ramadan. The savage punishment was carried out in public in the city of Kermanshah.