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At Least 20 Detained in Series of Home Raids in Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad Province

Posted on October 5, 2018 by admin-hr

Ali Sina Heidari, Bahram Sorkhabi, Citizens arrested, Dehdasht, Farhang Khorshidi, Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad, mass arrests in iran, Zarir Hadipour

Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) – Over the past few days, security forces transported at least 20 residents of Dehdasht, Suq, and Charam — cities in Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad province — to an undisclosed location, for undisclosed reasons, and without producing an arrest warrant.

A local source told HRANA that Ministry of Intelligence Agents whisked away several local residents after completing unannounced searches of their homes. HRANA has so far been able to confirm the identities of four arrestees: Ali Sina Heidari, Zarir Hadipour, Farhang Khorshidi, and Persian literature teacher Bahram Sorkhabi (a.k.a. Poor Behzad).

A Dehdasht resident described the thickening of security forces across main transportation arteries of Dehsasht and Choram: “Agents of the Ministry of Intelligence, IRGC, and Basij have set up checkpoints along the main streets of the city, and along the roads leading to Souq, Yasuj, Behbahan, and Gachsaran.”

According to the Dehdasht source, the families of the 20 detained residents have thus far been met with silence from regional security and judicial authorities, who since the arrests of October 1st and 3rd have offered no information about their loved ones’ cases or well-being. “[The families] were threatened with prosecution if they publicly disclose information about the arrests,” the source said.

Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad, a province of southwestern Iran, is comprised of Boyer-Ahmad (capital: Yasuj), Bahmai (capital: Likak), Dena (capital: Sisakht), Kohgiluyeh (capital: Dehdasht), Gachsaran (capital: Dogonbadan), Charam (capital: Charam), Basht (capital: Basht), and Landeh (capital: Landeh) counties.

HRANA will publish updates on this case as soon as they come available.

Appeals Court Upholds Conviction of Azerbaijani Activist

Posted on October 4, 2018 by admin-hr

Ethnic Minorities

azerbaijani activist, azerbaijani activist in Iran, azerbaijani prisoners, azerbaijani turkic ethnic minority rights activist, Farzad Mahdavi, Hossein Alimohammadi Alvar, Tabriz Central Prison, Taha Kermani

Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) – The three-year prison sentence of Azerbaijani activist Hossein Ali Mohammadi Alvar has been upheld by Judge Bahloul Alizadeh of East Azerbaijan Province Appeals Court Branch 3. Mohammadi Alvar is a resident of Tabriz in northwestern Iran, home to the country’s Azerbaijani ethnic minority.
An informed source confirmed news of the appeals decision to HRANA and elaborated on Mohammadi Alvar’s charges: two years in prison for insulting the Supreme Leader, and one year in prison for propaganda against the regime.
The appeals verdict confirmed the initial sentence issued to Mohammadi Alvar in Branch 2 of Tabriz Revolutionary Court. The same appeals court upheld the same sentence on the same charges four years ago, in connection to a different case file initially tried in Tabriz Revolutionary Court Branch 3. Pursuant to the 2014 ruling, security agents apprehended Mohammadi Alvar March 1, 2015, transferring him to Tabriz Central Prison to begin serving his sentence.
Authorities began developing a rap sheet on Mohammadi Alvar on September 12, 2013, when he and Farzad Mahdavi were arrested by security agents at a match of the Tabriz-based soccer club “Tractor Sazi.” Both Mohammadi Alvar and Mahdavi spent a day in detention before posting bail and going free.
Two months later, on November 4th, 2013, Tabriz security agents would arrest Mohammadi Alvar a second time, along with his fellow Azerbaijani activist Taha Kermani. Mohammadi Alvar and Kermani spent nearly 6 months in Tabriz Central prison before being released on bail. The corollary 10-year prison sentence issued to Mohammadi Alvar and Kermani in Revolutionary Court Branch 3 was later reduced to 2 years in appeals court.
In July 2015, Amnesty International issued a statement expressing concern that Mohammadi Alvar and Kermani’s 10-year sentence was “unjustified” and “politically motivated.” Amnesty said the men were convicted on the basis of confessions extracted under torture, which constituted a violation of human rights. They urged authorities to order an impartial investigation of the men’s torture allegations, and that if the latter is proven true, to bring those responsible to justice.

At Least 3 Prisoners Hanged to Death in Rajai Shahr Prison of Karaj

Posted on October 4, 2018 by admin-hr

Executions

executions, executions in iran, iran executions, Mahmoud Akbari, Mehdi Danesh, Omid Khosronejad, Rajai Shahr Prison, Rajai Shahr Prison of Karaj, Sirous Khodabandehlou

Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA)- Early in the morning of October 3, 2018, at least three prisoners were hanged to death while seven others were granted temporary reprieve.

HRANA has confirmed the identities of those executed as Yasser Eslami and Mahmoud Akbari of Ward 1 and Omid Khosronejad of Ward 10. Eslami and Khosronejad, co-defendants in a murder case, spent four years in prison prior to their executions yesterday.

Mehdi Danesh from Ward 1 and Siroos Khodabandehlou from Ward 6 were among the seven prisoners whose execution was stayed.

HRANA previously reported on a mass transfer of prisoners to solitary confinement, the protocol for prisoners whose execution is imminent. All ten of the above prisoners were transferred to solitary cells on Sunday, September 30th.

By carrying out these hangings in silence, authorities — particularly the judiciary — demonstrate a continued pattern of obfuscation on the topic of prisoner sentencing and executions, in spite of their responsibilities of informing the public.

According to Amnesty International’s annual report, Iran ranks first in the world in executions per capita. An annual report published by the Center of Statistics at Human Rights Activists in Iran (HRAI) states that more than 60% of executions in Iran are not reported by the state or the Judiciary. These executions are referred to as “secret executions.”

According to registered data from 2,945 reports by the Statistics, Publications, and Achievements Division of HRAI, in the past year (from March 21, 2017, to March 18, 2018) at least 322 citizens were executed and 236 others were sentenced to death in Iran. Among these were the executions of four juvenile offenders and 23 public hangings.

Appeals Court Convenes for 11 January Protest Detainees

Posted on October 4, 2018 by Sara

Freedom of Expression

Abbas Safari, Ali Bagheri, Behzad Ali Bakhshi, Davud Rahimi, January Protests, january protests iran, Kiyan Sadeghi, Mas’ud Ajlu, Mohammad Najafi, Mohammad Torabi, Mohammad Ya’qubi, Neda Yusofi, Vahid Heidari, Vahid Heydari, Yusof Shiri Lard

Human Rights Activist News Agency (HRANA) – On Wednesday, October 3rd, Branch One of Markazi Province Appeals Court convened to review the sentences of 11 defendants charged in relation to the nationwide protests that broke out in January of 2018.

Among the accused is attorney and human rights activist Mohammad Najafi, who stated that “economic problems” compelled him and his co-defendants to join the ranks of the January protestors. Najafi’s co-defendants are Ali Bagheri, Abbas Safari, Behzad Ali Bakhshi, Mohammad Yaghoubi, Yousef Shirilard, Neda Yousefi, Davoud Rahimi, Massoud Ajlou, Mohammad Torabi, and Kian Sadeghi.

Discovery into these protestors’ case file began March 13, 2018 in Branch One of Arak Investigation Court, by which point all 11 had already been interrogated by the Intelligence Office. Ten of the eleven were present during discovery, where an investigator deliberated on charges from disrupting the peace to gathering and conspiring. Though all of the accused were detained amid the protest site in Shazand city where all of them are residents, authorities inexplicably forwarded their case to the judicial office of Arak. All denied the charges brought against them.

Investigation court settled on a charge of “disrupting public peace through participating in an illegal gathering,” which according to HRANA reports incurred them one year of imprisonment and 74 lashings each, per the ruling of Judge Mohammad Reza Abdollahi in Arak Criminal Court No. 2, Branch 102.

Their sentence allows for detention time already served to be counted towards their pending prison terms, a particular boon to Najafi, Bagheri, Safari, and Sadeghi who received two additional years of prison time for “publishing lies with intent to disrupt the public mind.” Bagheri’s prison term was further compounded by another six months for “insulting a police chief in cyberspace.”

Independent of the January protests case file, Najafi, Bagheri, Safari, Ajilou, and Bakhshi all have individual cases pending in the Revolutionary Court of Arak.

Najafi was previously detained for inquiring into the death of civilian Vahid Heydari, who passed away while in custody of Arak authorities amid the January protests in Police Detention Center No. 12. While Iranian judicial authorities had claimed Heydari was a drug dealer who committed suicide during his detainment, Najafi’s field research, including interviews with Heydari’s family and friends, concluded that Heydari was a peddler with no criminal record; what’s more, his autopsy revealed no physical marks suspect for suicide. Buried under security supervision, Heydari had head injuries consistent with blunt-force trauma.

The court tried Najafi for his inquiries on June 9, 2018, in Arak Criminal Court No. 2, Branch 102. His hearing had previously been delayed due to the absence of the judge.

Tehran MP Mahmoud Sadeghi accused security authorities of fabricating the grounds for Najafi’s case, arguing that Najafi had simply proven that Heydari was not a drug dealer.

A large number of participants in recent protests, referred to as the January protests, were detained and interrogated across the country. The protests resulted in the death of 25 individuals and the detention of around five thousand.

Ministry of the Interior Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli previously stated that public demonstrations “turned violent” in 40 of the 100 cities where the January protests broke out.

Tyranny in Rajai Shahr Prison

Posted on October 4, 2018 by Sara

Prisoners

abbas yousodi, Abbas Yusodi, Ali Ahmadi, Behrouz Hosseini, Hamza Darvish, Majid Khoshdasht, Prisoner abuse, Rajai Shahr Prison, Rajai-Shahr, Rajai-Shahr prisons

Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) – Rajai Shahr prisoner Majid Khoshdasht received a beating today, October 3rd from Warden Hassan Kord, punishment for having complained about two prison personnel who assaulted him earlier this morning.

An informed source told HRANA that Khoshdasht was returning to Ward 1 from the prison shop when he was accosted by prison personnel Khanjani and Borzouie, who dealt injuries to his head, eyes, and ears.

Khoshdasht reached out to his warden Hassan Kord, who rather than addressing the violent episode “beat him and returned him to the ward,” a close source said, adding “although he is in bad shape, with injuries to his head and face, and severe injuries to his eye and ear, he has yet to receive medical attention.”

Unprovoked attacks by Rajai Shahr personnel — and Hassan Kord in particular — are not without precedent, and one prisoner told HRANA that seven had occurred in the past month. The physical and psychological pressures of Ward 1’s mobster-and-crony social order have driven prisoners there to hunger strike or suicide, according to HRANA reports: on September 12th of this year, Ali Ahmadi, held in Ward 1, committed suicide to escape incessant harassment from prisoners doing Kord’s bidding; on July 9th, an assault by Rajai Shahr personnel left broke prisoner Behrouz Hosseini’s left wrist and right tibia. Along with fellow prisoner Abbas Yousodi, Hossein had already been beaten in May of last year by Rajai Shahr’s internal manager. Goaded by prisoners, the manager reportedly doubled down on his attack, severely injuring Hosseini and Yousodi.

Rajai Shahr authorities roughed up Sunni prisoner Hamza Darvish this past May, aggressively intimidating him from speaking critically of those in charge. At the time of being accosted, Darvish was in handcuffs and shackles, mid-transfer to a medical examiner who was to treat him for health issues incurred during an extended hunger strike.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has sloganeered against civil rights repressions, publishing a Civil Rights Charter and verbally pushing for the comprehensive implementation of its provisions. Article 64 of the charter reads, “anyone arrested, convicted, or imprisoned is entitled to their civil rights, including proper nutrition, clothing, health and medical care, educational and cultural services, religious worship and practices.” Thus far, though, Rouhani’s rhetoric has yet to materialize into concrete initiatives.

Lawyer Mostafa Daneshjoo Remanded to Evin Prison

Posted on October 3, 2018 by Sara

Freedom of Expression, Religious Minorities

dervish iran, detained attorneys, gonabadi dervish iran, imprisoned lawyer in iran, imprisoned lawyers, jailed iranian lawyers, Mostafa Daneshjoo

Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA)- Judge Moghiseh has extended the temporary detention period of lawyer and imprisoned Dervish activist Mostafa Daneshjoo, denying his request for bail despite the severe progression of his cardiac and lung disease.

Symptoms of Daneshjoo’s asthma were exacerbated by his stay in Evin Prison’s Ward 250 between 2011 and 2015, on charges of “membership in the Dervish cult,” “acting against national security,” “propaganda against the regime,” and “disturbing the public mind.” Despite orders from the assistant prosecutor that Daneshjoo is sent to a healthcare facility, Evin Prison authorities have barred his transfer.

Seven armed agents arrested Daneshjoo in his mother’s home on July 7th, taking him to solitary confinement in Evin Prison’s Ward 209 — which is under Intelligence Ministry management — where he stayed for 45 days. He was then sent to Ward 4, typically designated for convicts of financial crimes.

Daneshjoo was arrested pursuant to a case file against him in 2017 in Tehran’s Security Investigation Court, in connection to a violent clash that took place February 2018 near the Dervish spiritual leader’s residence on Golestan Avenue in the capital city.

Per a letter from the security office at Azad University, Daneshjoo’s alma mater, he has been barred from continuing his studies. Citing his defense of the Gonabadi Dervish religious minority, security authorities have revoked his permit to practice law.

In a note dated October 2nd, attorney Ali Sharifzadeh announced that he had been retained as Daneshjoo’s lawyer in Branch 28 of Revolutionary Court.

Zahedan Appeals Court Ups Prison Sentence into Capital Punishment

Posted on October 3, 2018August 10, 2021 by admin-hr

Executions, Prisoners

Abdolhamid Mirbaluchzehi, Alireza Bampouri, Death Penalty, death penalty in iran, iran death penalty, Javid Dehghan, Mahmud Kalkali, Omid Imani

Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) – Zahedan Appeals Court has increased the 15-year prison sentence of Ward-4 Zahedan prisoner Abdolhamid Mirbaluchzehi to the death penalty. The final appeals verdict also upheld the capital punishment sentence of his co-defendant Javid Dehghan.

Both were initially tried in Branch 1 of Zahedan Revolutionary Court on charges of acting against national security and Moharebeh [enmity against God] in connection to an armed attack on police.

According to a close source, the fifteen-year prison sentences of co-defendants Mahmoud Kalkali, Omid Imani, and Alireza Bampouri — who did not request an appeal — were finalized “long ago.”

The charges of all defendants were reportedly prepared after their torture in a Ministry of Intelligence detention center in Zahedan, where according to a source they were “stripped naked, flogged,[…] disparaged and humiliated.”

Birjand Prison Executes Four Afghan Nationals

Posted on October 3, 2018 by admin-hr

Executions

Afghani Immigrants, Ahmad Shah Issa Zehi, Birjand, Birjand Prison, Eid Mohammad Miran Zehi, executions, executions in iran, iran executions, Mohammad Miran Zehi, Shah Mohammad Miran Zehi

Human Rights Activist News Agency (HRANA) – Six years ago, four Afghan nationals planned to use underground channels to migrate to Iran, where they had invested hopes of a better life. In the early morning hours of October 2, 2018, they were executed on charges of “armed drug trafficking,” a charge to which they reportedly confessed under the duress of torture.

Shah Mohammad Miran Zehi, Ahmad Shah Issa Zehi, Mohammad Miran Zehi, and Eid Mohammad Miran Zehi were married with children and had been in Birjand Central Prison for over six years.

In an open letter, the prisoners explained the circumstances in which they were detained and coerced to utter false confessions. Mohammad Miran Zehi wrote that they had filed into a Toyota set to take them to Birjand from Zabul when they got into a dispute with their driver near the village of Bandan [a tributary of Nahbandan on the Afghanistan-Southern Khorasan border]. Claiming he needed gas, he reportedly dropped the group off at a private residence and said he would be back.

“When [the driver] returned, he was flanked by authorities. They struck me in the head and took us to the Bandan police station. They subjected us to the cruelest forms of torture in there,” Mohammad Miran Zehi said.

Accusing them of transporting more than 300 pounds of opium and two Kalashnikov rifles, Bandar authorities used violence to press them to confess, going as far as pulling a toenail from Mohammad’s right foot.

The case file against the four was set into motion when they finally acceded to the torturers’ demands, “under the pressure, the fear for our lives, the inability to take it any longer, and hoping that maybe it would make them stop,” their letter explained.

The case file was then forwarded to judicial authorities and spent five years in suspense before Judges Nabavi and Seyfzadeh of Birjand Revolutionary Court Branch 2 issued the execution sentence on January 31, 2017. The Supreme Court upheld the death sentence for Shah Mohammad Miran Zehi, Ahmad Shah Issa Zehi, Mohammad Miran Zehi, and Eid Mohammad Miran Zehi; the death sentence of Saraj Gavkhur, a fifth defendant on the same case file, was commuted to 25 years’ imprisonment.

According to a close source, the group was made scapegoats for an armed conflict that had taken the life of a security agent days before their entry into Iran.

Birjand Central Prison is in the city of Birjand, capital of Southern Khorasan Province.

Three Hundred Gachsaran Prisoners Break into Protest

Posted on October 3, 2018 by Sara

Prisoners

Gachsaran, hunger strike prisoner, iran human rights, protests

Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) – Around 300 prisoners in Gachsaran, in the southwestern province of Kohgiluyeh and Boyer Ahmad, have launched protests and gone on hunger strike in opposition to patterns of injustice plaguing the quality of life in their region.

In phone calls to loved ones, several prisoners expressed discontent with the Gachsaran prosecutor’s unseemly behavior towards their families, the living conditions with which their families were faced, and authorities’ discriminatory treatment of prisoners, including their refusal to grant furlough to those who are eligible.

A source with two family members in the prison told HRANA that protestors were expressing their frustration and despair in very different ways. “During the protests, one prisoner, Hamed Pirayesh, cut his own ear and was subsequently transferred to solitary confinement. Today, another prisoner attempted suicide. Mir Mohammad Miri, an imprisoned political activist from Deyl village in Gachsaran county, is on his third day of hunger strike to protest the rejection of his furlough request.”

Miri was arrested July 21, 2018, to serve his sentence of lashings and two years in prison on charges of “insulting the supreme leader” and “propaganda against the regime.” The Gachsaran Revolutionary Court issued his verdict, which Branch 3 of the Appeals Court later upheld the sentence.

Iranian Authorities Execute Three Prisoners, Slate Four More for Gallows

Posted on October 3, 2018 by admin-hr

Executions, Prisoners, Women

Changiz Irani, child executions, Death Penalty, hassan hajilou, iran executions, juvenile executions, Juvenile Offenders, juvenile offenders in iran, Mousa Nomani, salman khan alilou, Salman Khan Alilu, Zeinab Sekaanvand, zeinab sekanvand

Human Rights Activist News Agency (HRANA) – State-run news agencies in Iran have yet to confirm the executions of three prisoners this morning, October 2nd, in Urmia: Salman Khan Alilou, Hassan Hajilou, and Zeinab Sekaanvand. Sekaanvand was executed for a crime she had allegedly committed as a minor.

Yesterday, Amnesty International released a statement expressing concern about Sekaanvand’s transfer to a solitary confinement cell, the protocol for prisoners whose death sentence is imminent. “The authorities must immediately quash Zeinab Sekaanvand’s conviction and grant her a fair retrial without recourse to the death penalty, and in accordance with principles of juvenile justice,” the statement read.

Sekaanvand, born June 22, 1994, was 17 when she was detained March 1, 2012, on accusations of killing her husband. Branch 2 of Urmia Criminal Court issued her a death sentence, which was confirmed in Branch 8 of the Supreme Court. Married in March of 2009 at the age of 15, Sekaanvand reportedly endured physical violence at the hands of her husband.

Having spent two years in Khoy Prison since her initial arrest, Sekaanvand was transferred to the Women’s Ward of Urmia prison after being issued the death sentence. Prison authorities would later approve her marriage to a fellow Urmia prisoner. She delivered a stillborn baby on Friday, October 1, [2016].

Yesterday, HRANA reported on the transfer of at least four prisoners — all of whom were reportedly charged with first-degree murder — to solitary cells in various detention centers across Urmia in preparation for their executions.

The same day, two more prisoners — Mousa Nomani from Ward 3-4 and Changiz Irani from the Psychotherapy Ward — were granted execution stays of one month and fifteen days, respectively, to attempt to obtain pardon from the families of their victims, which would exempt them from capital punishment.

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