Category: News

A Report on the Latest Condition of Hani and Hood Yazarloo in Evin Prison; Heart Condition and Worries

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Prisoners
Hamed Yazarloo, Hani Yazarloo, Hood Yazarloo, Nazila Dashti

HRANA News Agency – 20 days into the arrest of Dr. Hani Yazarloo and his son Hood Yazarloo, former political prisoners, there is no information on their situation and the reasons of their arrest. Yazarloos were arrested by the Ministry of Intelligence agents in Tehran on July 7, 2019 and were transferred to an unknown location. Dr. Hani Yazarloo is suffering from a heart disease and had been deprived of accessing his medications for 24 hours during his previous detention which endangered his life. The efforts of the Yazarloo family to obtain information about their condition have not yielded any results.

A source close to Yazarloo family told HRANA: “it has been 10 days that Hani and Hood have been arrested and there is yet no information on their situation and the reason of their arrest. Today, the Yazarloo family’s attempt to gain an update on their condition with the Evin Court for the second time was failed. Not only they were not permitted to visit them, but also their request for an appointment with the case investigator was denied.”

This source was concerned about Hani Yazarloo health condition and added that: “Today, efforts to find out about the charges and the reasons for their detention have not yielded results, and officials have still not given a clear answer, claiming that they are temporarily detained for continuation of investigation; while Dr. Yazarloo was denied access to his medications for 24 hours in his previous detention endangering his life.

It should be noted that Dr. Hani Yazarloo and his son Hood Yazarloo, both former political prisoners, were arrested by the agents of the Ministry of Intelligence in Tehran on July 7 and were then transferred to an undisclosed location.  Sometime after their arrest, the father and son (briefly, and separately) could make telephone calls to their place of residence. Dr. Yazarloo confirmed his imprisonment in the Ward 209 of Evin Prison but Hood could not identify his place of detention.

Dr. Hani Yazarloo, is suffering from heart disease and underwent a heart surgery about 15 years ago.  While the transplanted cardiac veins only last for 10 years, he must be under the supervision of a cardiologist so that if necessary, to undergo another open-heart surgery.  Some of his arteries are clogged and he is in serious need of medications regularly. It should be noted that Dr. Hani Yazarloo is a political activist who had been imprisoned several times in the 1970s, ’80s,’ 90s, and 2000s in various prisons.

In his latest detention in the year 2011, he was arrested for attending a ceremony commemorating political prisoners and was released on bail after 55 days of detention in solitary confinement cell.  Dr. Yazarloo was then sentenced by the Branch 26 of Tehran’s Revolutionary Court to one-year imprisonment in exile and fifteen additional years in exile in Iranshahr. This sentenced was appealed and changed to exile and imprisonment in Mashhad.  He was eventually transferred to the Ward 350 of Evin Prison on May 21, 2013, to remain in detention.

On January 18, 2014, en route to the district court of Evin Prison from the Ward 350 of Evin Prison, this political prisoner was instead transferred to Vakil Abad Prison in Mashhad.  Finally, at the end of February 2014, he was released from Vakil Abad Prison in Mashhad finishing his term. Hood Yazarloo was previously arrested by the agents of the Ministry of Intelligence in June 2008 along with his mother, Nazila Dashti.  Mr. Yazarloo, who was studying at the University of Qom, was prevented from continuing his education due to his arrest.  He was released in May 2011 from Rajai Shahr prison in Karaj after about three years of imprisonment under the charge of “action against the national security”.

After Hood’s release, Nazila Dashti, who was herself a political prisoner in the 80’s, was released from Evin prison in mid-April 2012, serving about three years in prison. Hamed Yazarloo, another member of this four-member family, was sentenced to three years in prison in Evin prison under charges of “acting against the national security” from March 2009 to February 2012.  Hamed Yazarloo was a so-called star student (a student who is partially or completely banned from education). He was denied entry into a Ph.D. program for two consecutive years by the Ministry of Science despite being accepted after the interview for entering.

Increase in Domestic Violence in Tehran; More Than 16 Thousand Cases Were Filed

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Women
Domestic Violence, Tehran

 

The head of the Medical Examiner’s Office of Tehran province, Masoud Ghadi pasha, announced that more than 16 thousand and 420 cases were reported to the Medical Examiner’s Office. Tehran has the sixth place in domestic violence in Iran. He added that the cases with injuries caused by fight was increased by 8.6 percent in 2018 compared to 2017. This numbers grows to 4.1 percent in the spring of 2019. Ghadi Pasha claimed that Tehran is a major hub to file a case with the Medical Examiner’s Office having 20 centers servicing the citizens and added that Tehran’s Medical Examiner’s Office conducts 19 per cent of all the Medical Examinations in the country. The Public Relation’s department of the Medical Examiner’s Office earlier announced that more than 153,000 cases of injuries in fight have filed a case this spring which shows an increase of 4.2 per cent compared to the same duration last year.

The national director of Iran’s social emergency hotline said that 30% of reports called into the center are flagging some form of “domestic violence,” 30% of which turn out to be child abuse cases. Of this 30%, 50% were related to educational negligence, 30% to physical abuse, 15% to psychological abuse, and 4% to sexual abuse of children.

Three Prisoners Were Executed in Urmia and Kashan

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Executions
Arasteh Rnjbar, Execution, Kashan prison, Nazdar Vatankhah, Shahin Gholami, Urmia prison

In the morning of July 21, 2019, a prisoner was executed in Kashan prison. The deputy prosecutor of the Revolutionary Court of Kashan, Rouhollah Dehghani, stated that in October 2018, the prisoner was fatally stabbed victim in a fight. After his arrest, he confessed to murder and having a relationship with the victim’s wife. The victim’s family requested death penalty for him and their daughter-in-law. He was sentenced to death by the court and the appeals court acknowledge it. After several meetings with the victim’s family, they refused to forgive. The victim’s wife was also sentenced to 25 years on the charge of ‘cooperated homicide’.”

In addition, in the morning of July 23, 2019, two female prisoners, Nazdar Vatankhah and Arasteh Rnjbar, who were sentenced to death earlier were executed in Urmia prison. They were transferred to the solidarity confinement a day before. They were granted one-month time to get the consent of the family of the victim but were unsuccessful. They were executed on Tuesday. Ranjbar was charged with murdering her husband and Vatankhah, Ranjbar’s sister-in-law, was charged with “cooperate homicide”. They had spent the last 15 years in prison prior to their execution. Ranjbar’s brother, Asghar Ranjbar, was executed in Urmia prison on a drug-related felony in 2017.

Finally, On July 24, 2019, at least two prisoners were transferred to solidarity confinement cells in Urmia prison to prepare for execution on the charge of murder. One of them was identified as Shahin Gholami. If they fail to get the victims’ family’s consent, they will be executed in few days.

According to the international organizations, Iran ranks first in the world in executions per capita. Based on 256 reports that have been registered by the Department of Statistics and Publication of Human Rights Activists Association in Iran, 195 death sentences and 236 people with death sentences were executed (including 13 executions in public) in Iran between January 1, 2018 and December 20, 2018. Six of them were juvenile offenders who were under the age of 18 at the time of committing the crime.

Secret executions of prisoners reported by the independent sources and the human rights association indicate that 72% of executions are carried out in secret or without any public notice.

Identifying and introducing the mass graves of executed in 1980’s massacres in Kazerun

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Executions
1988 mass execution, Abbas Abedi, Ahmad Nikan, Azim Khodadadi, Bahram Khayer, Bijan Ghasabnejad, Ebrahim Haya, Elaheh Homayouni, Farideh Rahsepar, Fatemeh Hosseini, Ghasem Taghipour, Gholam Zarei, Gholamreza Zahedani, Hamid Jokar, Hamid Mokhtari, Iraj Moghadasi, Javad Forsat, Javad Irani, Javad Izadi, Kavous Rezaei, Kazem Abedi, Kazerun, Keramat Sivandi, Khodadad Moezeni, Majid Arasteh, Majid Kashani, Majid Niknam, Maoud Mokhtari, Mehdi Sheikhian, Mohammad Boostani, Mohammad Hasan Forsat, Mostafa Davoudi, Nabi Dehghan, Parviz Tohidi, Rasoul Dorkhah, Saeed Abedi, Saeed Golestan Fard, Samad Golestan Fard, Sedigheh Sadeghpour, Shahnaz Galleh, Shahram Karimi

The 1980’s executions of the Iranian political prisoners were a series of state-sponsored execution of political prisoners across Iran. The unlawful mass execution is an undeniable truth and a cruel part of contemporary history in Iran. These executions took place between 1981-1988 nationwide and the victims had been buried in distorted areas. During the 1988 executions of the Iranian political prisoners committed by the state, the government used some places as the site of unmarked mass graves for those killed.

The place of their graves is still unknown after four decades and security forces have been trying to demolish these places as documents of human rights violations. Occasionally, some of these places are identified and introduced by the human rights activists. The last place is a mass grave of several victims in northwest of Kazerun which is introduced in this report aiming to investigate serious allegations of human rights violations and crimes against humanity in the Islamic Republic of Iran during the 1980’s.

According to HRANA, Iran’s Human Rights Activist News Agency, during 1980’s, especially between 1981-1988, thousands of political prisoners were illegally executed and buried in unmarked locations. The struggle to identify these places is important for documenting Human Rights violations and crimes against humanity in Iran. Earlier, HRANA published reports about several mass graves in Bandar-e Gaz and Ahvaz. This report, which was prepared based on field research and witnesses interviews, focuses on the mass grave of political prisoners found in Kazerun city, in Fars province.

An irregular unnamed cemetery is in an ally in Neshat street in northwest of Kazerun with the coordinates of 510624205 ad 290628464. This land was never used as a cemetery; it was used as an entrance way to a village. It was used as a mass grave to bury the executed political prisoners with the permission of authorities. According to international organizations and informed parties, 40-50 people were executed in this city and its surroundings between 1981-1988. The executed prisoners are identified as the followings:

Saeed Abedi, Abbas Abedi, Kazem Abedi, Ahmad Nikan, Mohammad Hasan Forsat, Javad Forsat, Maoud Mokhtari, Hamid Mokhtari, Bahram Khayer, Farideh Rahsepar, Fatemeh Hosseini, Sedigheh Sadeghpour, Majid Niknam, Rasoul Dorkhah, Azim Khodadadi, Ebrahim Haya, Keramat Sivandi, Iraj Moghadasi, Elaheh Homayouni, Kavous Rezaei, Majid Kashani, Ghasem Taghipour, Shahram Karimi, Saeed Golestan Fard, Samad Golestan Fard, Mehdi Sheikhian, Mohammad Boostani, Gholamreza Zahedani, Gholam Zarei, Hamid Jokar, Shahnaz Galleh, Nabi Dehghan, Khodadad Moezeni, Bijan Ghasabnejad, Parviz Tohidi, Majid Arasteh, Javad Irani, Javad Izadi, and Mostafa Davoudi.

The precise number and identity of the buried are not mentioned in this report; however, based on the field investigations, it can be claimed that Mehdi Sheikhian, Masoud Mokhtari, Nabi Dehghan, Iraj Moghadasi, Majid Kashani, and Shahnaz Galleh are buried in this mass grave. The primary evaluation confirms that at least 15 bodies are buried in this mass grave. Identifying the rest of the bodies is ongoing.

Kazerun is the capital of Kazerun county in the western Fars province located in south of Iran.

The following video is the current footage of the site:

Four prisoners were executed in Urmia prison

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Executions
Himan Bonavand, Jafar (Iman) Mohammadi, Mahmoud Khaledi, Mohammad Aref (Jahangir) Najafian, Urmia prison

In the morning of July 15, 2019 four prisoners of Urmia prison were executed on the charge of murder. They were transferred to solidarity confinement cells a day before. These prisoners, Himan Bonavand, Jafar (Iman) Mohammadi, Mohammad Aref (Jahangir) Najafian, and Mahmoud Khaledi were sentenced to death on the charge of murder earlier. Bonavand was in prison since 2014. The news of these executions has not been published by Iranian media yet.

According to the international organizations, Iran ranks first in the world in executions per capita. Based on 256 reports that have been registered by the Department of Statistics and Publication of Human Rights Activists Association in Iran, 195 death sentences and 236 people with death sentences were executed (including 13 executions in public) in Iran between January 1, 2018 and December 20, 2018. Six of them were juvenile offenders who were under the age of 18 at the time of committing the crime.

Secret executions of prisoners reported by the independent sources and the human rights association indicate that 72% of executions are carried out in secret or without any public notice.

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A juvenile offender was saved from execution in Faryab

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Children, Executions
Faryab, juvenile offender

A juvenile offender who was arrested with a murder charge at the age of 16, was spared from gallows with consent of the next of kin after spending five years in prison in the city of Faryab. He was released on July 15, 2019 with the intervention of the judicial authorities and elders of the city. He murdered a young boy in a fight after losing the control over his anger in 2014.

The head of justice department of this city added that due to convict’s regret, his good behavior in Jiroft Prison, not having a criminal record, and being 16 year old at the time of crime, the justice department intervene to get the victim’s family consent to save him from execution.

Faryab is in Kerman province.

A Ukrainian citizen was arrested in Yazd

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Other
Ardakan, Kharanaq, Ukrianian

A Ukrainian citizen was arrested by security forces in Ardakan on July 13, 2019. Behrouz Shahabizadeh, Ardakan governor confirmed and added that this person had been in a sensitive area by mistake and took pictures by heli shot in Kharanaq village in Ardakan. Some local sources claimed that he was filming by drone in Kharanaq village in Ardakan, which is 85 kilometers northwest of Yazd, when he got arrested.

This place is important because of the mines and natural resources. The city of Ardakan is located in Yazd province.

Jailed for attending International Workers’ Day Demonstration; Neda Naji has her final trial

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Labor and Guilds, Women
Anisha Asadollahi, Atefeh Rangriz, Marzieh Amiri, Neda Naji, Qarchak Prison

The final trial of Neda Naji was on July 08, 2019. She was arrested in the International Workers’ Day demonstration on May 1, 2019 along with 10 others. On June 15, 2019 she was transferred from Evin prison’s Ward 209 to the Qarchak prison in Varamin. She is charged with “assembly and collision”, “propaganda against the stat”, “disturbing the public order”, and “disobeying the order or the government officials”.

On July 6, her husband, Jamanl Ameli, wrote on his personal Twitter account that Naji was beaten twice in the prison by a prisoner and a prison official and she was transferred to the health ward in prison because of her blurred vision after the attack. He added that Naji and Atefeh Rangriz are in danger in Qarchak prison.

Naji and 10 other arrestees had participated in a protest in front of the parliament on May 1, 2019. A few of them were released but Neda Naji, Atefeh Rangriz, and Marzieh Amiri are still in prison. Anisha Asadollahi who was released on bail was arrested again on June 18 and was transferred to Evin prison’s Ward 209. Her case is in process at Court Branch 2 of Evin Prison Court. Moreover, Marzieh Amiri’s hearing was on July 3, 2019 and she charged with “assembly and collusion” and “disturbing public order” and the judge refused the request to release on bail.

Mandatory Hijab: Fatemeh Mohammadi Was Arrested After Being Harassed

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Women
Christian Converted, Fatemeh Mohammadi, Mandatory Veil

Fatemeh Mohammadi, a former prisoner, was arrested by NAJA (Law Enforcement Force of the Islamic Republic of Iran) on July 9, 2019. She was arrested after a woman, Mousavi, harassed her because of her dress code and injured Mohammadi’s face. Mohammadi went to a police station to file a complaint against that woman but she was arrested instead. The attacker claimed that she is “enjoining good and forbidding wrong” which Iranian authorities considered positive roles in helping others to take the straight path and abstain from reprehensible acts.

A witness reported that Mohammadi was sitting in the bus when a Chador-wearing woman, Mousavi, insulted her and advised her to wear her headscarf properly. Mousavi attacked Mohammadi, pushed her chest with her hand, and beat her face until her nails were covered in blood. The bus driver stopped the bus and they went to the police station branch 119. She filed a complaint against Mousavi, but police let her go and arrested Mohammadi. She was released on bail on July 10.

Mohammadi, a Christian convert and former prisoner was arrested on November 18, 2017. She was detained in Tehran and was transferred to Evin prison. On April 7th, 2018, Mohammadi, who was 19 years old at the time, was sentenced by Branch 26 of the Revolutionary Court of Tehran, presided by Judge Ahmadzadeh, to six months’ imprisonment on charges of “membership in proselytizing groups,” “Christian activity,” and “acting against national security through propaganda against the regime.” She was released from Evin Prison’s women’s ward after completing her sentence.

Saba Kord Afshari’s Mother, Raheleh Ahmadi, Was Arrested

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Women
Raheleh Ahmadi, Saba Kord-Afshari

Raheleh Ahmadi, Saba Kord Afshari’s mother, was arrested by security forces on July 9, 2019. According to their family, she is arrested to put pressure on her detained daughter who has denied having a forced video confessions in the past few weeks. Ahmadi was taken to a court where her accusations were explained as “propaganda against the state”, “collaboration with foreign media”, and “encouraging corruption and prostitution”. She was then transferred to the Qarchak prison. However, as of now, her whereabouts are unknown.

Saba Kord Afshari, 22-year old former political prisoner and detained activist in Qarchak prison in Varamin was transferred to an unknown place ten days ago. According to her family, she has not had any contact with her family since her arrest and her whereabouts is still unknown.

Kord Afshari was arrested by security forces on June 1, 2019 at her home in Tehran and was transferred to Vozara detention Center. Her house was searched by security forces and some of her belongings such as her cell phone and her laptop were confiscated. She appeared in the Branch 21 Revolutionary Court in Tehran and her accusations were explained as “gathering and collusion against national security through collaborating with foreign media”, “propaganda against the state through collaborating with opposition and subversive groups”, “encouraging corruption and prostitution through appearing without a headscarf in public”. She was detained for a month of which she has to serve at least 10 days in solitary confinement.

Kord Afshari was arrested along 50 others during last July-August uprising protesting the current economic deterioration and corruption on August 2, 2018 and was transferred to Varamin’s Gharachak prison. She was later transferred to Evin prison’s Women’s Ward in October 2018 and was charged with “disrupting the public order” and was sentenced to one year in prison at the Branch 28 of Tehran’s Revolutionary Court led by Judge Moghiseh. She was released on February 14, 2019 when Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had pardoned a “large number” of prisoners in honor of the 40th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution.