Iran regime refusing to hold my daughter’s court hearings, mother says

The mother of civil activist Atena Daemi, sentenced to 14 years behind bars, said nearly 8 months have passed since this ruling was issued for her daughter yet the appeals court hearings have not been held.

In response to their follow-ups, regime officials have been postponing the court hearing date one week at a time.

“Atena has suffered severe headaches and serious vision loss since she was detained in solitary confinement. Despite the fact that she was sent to a brain-nerve-eye specialist the reason behind her illness was not revealed. However, physicians have said stressful conditions in prison are very dangerous for Atena. Her lawyer and us have time and again requested her release on bail but every time they turn down our request,” said Masoume Ne’mati.

Atena Daemi is a civil and children’s rights activist arrested on October 21, 2014 by the Revolutionary Guards intelligence organization and transferred to Evin Prison.

Iran: State agents taking action against prisoner’s wife

During the past week the wife of a prisoner by the name of Omid Shahmoradi Sanandaji faced rude behavior by prison guards when she had gone to visit her husband behind bars in Evin Prison.

The disturbing behavior, according to Omid Shahmoradi, was followed with physical abuse, recorded by closed-circuit video cameras, and carried out before the very eyes of the families of other prisoners.

Iran: civil activist sentenced to jail

One of the students of Mohammad Ali Taheri in Iran has been sentenced to one year in jail.

Parvin Soleimani has been sentenced to one year behind bars on the charge of taking part in rallies protesting the execution verdict issued for Mohammad Ali Taheri.

Mrs. Soleimani has been arrested three times in recent years for taking part in protest rallies in support of Mohammad Ali Tahreri.

On the other hand, Saeed Ardeshir, Mrs. Soleimani’s son-in-law, is now detained in Gohardasht Prison in Karaj, west of Tehran, serving his five year term.

Nearly 20 days of chocking air pollution in Tehran left millions in distress

Tehran, AFP, 30 December 2015 – Nearly 20 days of suffocating air pollution which was the worst concerted in three years, primary schools and nurseries were closed and new car exclusion zones imposed in the capital.
Tehran’s air quality index averaged 159 on Wednesday, up two from the previous day, and more than three times the World Health Organization’s maximum advised level of between zero and 50.
One area in northeastern Tehran peaked at 238.
The official IRNA news agency reported on Wednesday that it was the 18th straight day of dangerously bad air quality while newspapers quoted officials casting blame on each other for the problem and failure to tackle it.
“Our preference was to close all schools but the education ministry insisted on keeping high schools open because of final term exams,” said Mohammad Heydarzadeh, secretary of Tehran’s emergency air pollution committee.
The cold weather is causing climate inversion - where emissions from car exhausts hang in the air rather than rising into the atmosphere above.
A decade-long central restriction zone based on car number plates was in place across the city on Wednesday, traffic police announced.
Vehicles with plates ending in an odd number couldn’t go out on Saturday, Monday and Wednesday, while cars with even numbered plates were banned on Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday.
Sand and cement factories around the capital were banned from operating until Friday, the end of the Iranian week, Heydarzadeh said.
All outdoor sport activities were halted including professional football league matches.
Exhaust fumes from the five million cars and almost as many motorcycles that ply Tehran’s roads account for 80 percent of its pollution, officials say.
Two permanent zones of traffic restrictions introduced in 1979 and 2005 have failed to rectify Tehran’s poor air quality.
While Tehran is the epicenter of the pollution also closed were primary schools in other major cities including Isfahan, Qom, Arak and Tabriz.
Weather forecasters predicted that air quality would improve after expected rainfall on Wednesday evening.

Syria: Over 55,000 people including 2,500 children killed in 2015, says monitoring agency

January 1, 2016 - More than 55,000 people were killed in Syria in 2015, including over 2,500 children, bringing the total death toll of the deadly civil war in its fifth year to 260,000.
As many as 55,219 people, including 20,977 civilians, were killed in Syria in 2015, monitoring group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The Syrian regime forces also suffered heavy losses, with 8,819 soldiers and officers being killed this year. More than 7,000 pro-regime militia men were also killed in Syria.
Syria’s civil war began in 2011 with anti-government  protests during the wave of the Arab spring in the region, but the conflict escalated to deadly proportions over five years, leading to the rise of deadly terror groups such as the Islamic State, which controls swathes of territory in the country and is responsible for several executions and terror attacks.
While 2015 saw fewer deaths than 2014, when 76,021 people had been killed, the monitoring agency called for international intervention to end the war.
'We in the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights consider the silence of the international community for the war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Syria encourages the criminals to kill more and more Syrian people,' the Britain-based agency said in its report on Thursday.
On 18 December, the United Nations Security Council approved a resolution to bring about a political solution in Syria even as differences remained over the fate of Bashar al-Assad.
The Security Council called for a political process to establish 'credible, inclusive and non-sectarian governance,' within six months and for free and fair elections to be held within 18 months.

Iran: Four Sunni prisoners die due to torture and lack of medical treatment

Dozens of Sunni prisoners in Gohardasht on death row
Call for support for Sunni prisoners and their families

While the religious fascism ruling Iran demagogically holds “unity week” on the occasion of the birthday of the prophet of Islam and brags about Shia-Sunni brotherhood and equality, it has in fact intensified suppression, execution and tormenting to death of Sunni prisoners in various prisons of the country.

On December 27-30, three Sunni prisoners in Zahedan central prison lost their lives due to torture and being deprived of medical treatment.

On December 30, Eqbal (Mehdi) Naroui, 23, a Sunni Baluchi prisoner in Zahedan lost his life in the Quarantine Ward of Zahedan prison due to tortures he suffered in the hands of regime’s henchmen. He was transferred to the Quarantine Ward after he protested pressures imposed by torturers and got into a brawl with them. Three days earlier, Farzad Naroui, 40, had also lost his life in Ward 5 of Zahedan central prison due to barbaric tortures and deprivation of medical treatment. He was transferred to the prison ward after undergoing three days of torture in Zahedan’s bureau of investigation while in critical condition suffering from severe wounds in the back and legs. However, head henchman Khalili, the prison’s intelligence deputy, prevented him from receiving any medical treatment.

On December 28-29, Mehdi Naroui, 38, and Gholam Rabbani, 40, also lost their lives because they were deprived of medical treatment. They had spent six and two years in prison respectively.

Meanwhile, there are dozens of Sunni prisoners in Gohardasht (Rajai Shahr) Prison, especially in Hall 10 of Ward 4, that have been condemned to death and their death sentences have been confirmed by the regime’s henchmen in its Supreme Court. They have been sentenced to death upon absurd and mullah-fabricated allegations such as “propaganda against the system, corruption on earth, and Moharebeh”.

Moreover, in recent days, the wards of Gohardasht Prison where Sunni prisoners are kept have been raided by the Revolutionary Guards and faced inspections with prisoner-transfers now and then while extra restrictions have been imposed on these wards.

The Iranian Resistance calls on the Iranian people, especially the youth of any belief and religion to rise to the support of all prisoners and their families, especially the Sunni prisoners. This regime is the enemy of all people, Sunni or Shia, Muslim and non-Muslim. It merely abuses religion and belief as an instrument for suppression of the people. The equality and unity that this regime talks of is in reality tantamount to equality in getting suppressed, oppressed, hanged, or deprived and poor.

The Iranian Resistance also calls on all international bodies, especially the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran, the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, the Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, and other pertinent Rapporteurs and bodies not to remain silent in the face of the crimes of this medieval regime and to urge the UN Security Council to take effective measures to end the barbaric and systematic violations of human rights in Iran and to demand an end to the dire conditions in its prisons.

Trois personnes détenues dans une prison iranienne et victimes de mauvais traitements finissent par mourir un à un en trois jours

La monstruosité du régime intégriste de l'Iran a conduit au décès survenu cette semaine de trois Iraniens incarcérés dans une prison de Zahedan, ville située au sud de l'Iran, au terme de trois jours consécutifs de tortures infligées et abandons, selon des rapports reçus par les médias.

Toujours selon ces mêmes rapports, du dimanche au mardi de cette semaine, les trois prisonniers incarcérés dans les salles n°5, 6 et 7 de la prison centrale de Zahedan sont morts suite à des actes de torture d’une grande brutalité et à cause de l’absence de soins médicaux.

Tout d’abord, Naravi Farzad, âgé d’environ 40 ans, connu par le pseudo de «  Shahin », a perdu la vie le dimanche 27 décembre 2015, trois jours après son transfert au quartier 5 d’une prison reliée à un centre interrogatoire où il avait été violemment malmené. Son corps avait subi des blessures profondes après des actes de torture et son sang coulait en abondance sur son dos et sur ses pieds. En cellule, il a été privé de soins médicaux après à son agression.

Puis, Naravi Mehdi, 38 ans, est mort dans ce centre pénitentiaire lundi 28 décembre dernier. Il avait passé les six dernières années derrière les barreaux et était détenu dans le quartier 7 de la prison de Zahedan. Depuis quelque temps, il était gravement malade, mais les gardiens de prison ont refusé de le transférer à un hôpital proche.

Enfin, Gholam Rabbani, âgé de 45 ans, incarcéré dans le quartier 6 de la prison, est décédé mardi 29 décembre. Il était également gravement malade ces deux dernières années pendant sa période de détention, ce qui n’a pas empêché ses geôliers de le priver du traitement médical approprié à sa maladie.