Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA)- Dozens of citizens were rounded up October 13th and 15th in the Malashieh and Kouy-e Alavi neighborhoods of Ahvaz, the capital of southwestern border province of Khuzestan now known as the site of a violent shooting on a military parade on September 22nd of this year.
HRANA has identified nine more Ahwazi Arab arrestees, who join the 44 already arrested as of September 27th: Mohammad Omuri, 26, Naim Heydari, 24, Aref Ghazalavi, Kazem Ghazalavi, Ali al-Hay (Hayyai), Shakir Savari, Shakir Savari, and Fadhil Shemousi, arrested Saturday, and Jassim Croshat, 45, a mechanic from Kouye Alavi in Ahvaz, who was arrested Monday, October 15th.
Category: News
Zahra Majd Sequestered for Opinions of her Dissident Spouse
Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA)- Upon her arrival to Iran via the Isfahan airport on Thursday, October 11th, security forces arrested Zahra Majd — wife of Mohammad Hedayati, a critic of Iran’s ruling clergy — along with her children, ages three and five.
The children were put in the care of relatives late that night, Hedayati said, and Majd was transferred to an undisclosed location in Tehran the next morning.
The Secretary-General of the Traditional Cleric’s Association of America, Hedayati is a vocal dissident of the Iranian regime who lives in the United States with Zahra and their two children.
Hedayati confirmed the news of his family’s arrest to HRANA, adding that Majd and their children had previously traveled to Iran for family visits without running into any trouble.
“Last week, our three-year-old daughter was hospitalized for six days in the United States because she fell into critical condition from diabetes,” Hedayati said. “She was hospitalized again this morning, after being arrested with her mother, because she missed the insulin she needs to get after each meal.”
Majd was initially told she was being arrested on a personal civil case, Hedayati said, until it was revealed that her detainment was ordered by Iran’s Special Clerical Court. “The condition of her release is that I go to Iran and present myself to this Court,” Hedayati explained.
According to Hedayati, Zahra was scheduled for transfer to the Clerical Court on Saturday, October 13th at 9 a.m.
The Special Clerical Court has been trying cases involving the clergy, as well as graduates of Iran’s Islamic seminaries, since its establishment at the time of the Iranian Revolution. HRANA previously published a report marking the 40th anniversary of this judicial institution.
Clashing Zahedan Prisoners Beaten, Forcefully Undressed
Human Rights Activist News Agency (HRANA) – On Friday, October 12th, fights that broke out amid the stifling conditions of Zahedan Prison landed 29 prisoners in quarantine. The next day, quarantined prisoners were taken to the prison yard, forcefully undressed, beaten by prison guards, and left outside until morning.
According to one of the prisoner’s relatives, tensions had reached a breaking point in Zahedan’s Youth Ward, also known as Ward 1, which has a capacity of 140 but currently houses 350.
The source added that 17 youth were injured in the scuffle, and authorities cut the phone lines to Ward 1 immediately after the incident.
The overpopulation of Iranian prisons a systemic issue exacerbated by authorities’ laxity in addressing requests for furlough and sentence reductions, even for lawfully eligible prisoners. Meetings intended to review requests for commutation and conditional release are routinely postponed.
Two Executed, One Pardoned in Shahr-e Kord
Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) – On the morning of October 14th, Saleh Dehkordi, 38, and Yarali Noori, 40, were executed in Shahr-e Kord Prison. In the eleventh hour, Davoud Shokri, 26, was pardoned by family members of the plaintiff on his case.
All three were transferred to solitary confinement on October 13th, the protocol for prisoners whose execution is imminent.
Dehkordi, who had reportedly been detained in Shahr-e-Kord since 2011, was slated for execution in 2014 but returned to prison when his victim’s family members agreed to absolve him. He was among Shahr-e Kord prisoners injured in a 2014 fire.
Shahr-e Kord is the capital of Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari Province.
According to Amnesty International’s annual report, Iran ranks first in the world in executions per capita. According to registered data from the Statistics, Publications, and Achievements Division of Human Rights Activists in Iran (HRAI), at least 256 citizens were executed in Iran between October 10, 2017, and October 9, 2018, 15 of which were public hangings. Sixty-eight percent of executions, referred to as “secret executions,” are not announced by the state or Judiciary.
Urban Exposé: Cell Towers Wreak Havoc on Public Health
Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA)- Since the advent of Tehran’s cellular network infrastructure some 20 years ago, installations of Base Transceiver Stations (BTS) have multiplied in tandem with consumer demand for omnipresent “4G” icons and 5-bar signal strength. Now that the lure of this market has crowded urban skylines with steely contraptions that emit radiation, detractors fear they’re being appraised at an even higher price than the public health.
When her mother began suffering from headaches and fatigue within a few months of moving into an apartment with a rooftop BTS, Shirin’s doctor told her and her mother to vacate as soon as possible. “We were living on the third floor, and this was a four-story building,” Shirin said.
Towers and multi-story buildings are an ideal installation site for BTS, which are placed with an eye for optimal coverage with minimal material obstacles. As previously explained to the Iranian Student News Agency (INSA) by Faculty Vice President Seyyed Ali Alavian of the Iran University of Science and Technology, distance from a BTS device can only protect consumers to a point. “If the person is consistently exposed to the radiation [even at a distance], the emissions are going to have an impact,” he said.
Last year, member of the Iranian Parliament Health Committee Mohammad Javad Nazarimehr cited what he said were the least of radiation-induced diseases: “weakening of the immune system, increased risk of male infertility, elevated risk of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, neurological disorders, headache, eye pain, and loss of appetite.”
While no current data is available to confirm exactly how many BTSs loom over Iran’s largest cities, exposure is visibly inevitable. They adorn the skyline of many residential areas and are even perched atop medical facilities.
Telecommunication firms are adamant that urban BTS towers are benign. Their opinion finds support — curiously — at the Ministry of Health and the Iranian Atomic Energy Agency, who have stated that it is “harmless” to install them near peoples’ homes.
Iranian Parliament and Tehran City Council have discussed a reduction in BTS installations for both health and aesthetic reasons, and the city previously motioned to de-BTS certain areas in the interest of “beautifying the urban landscape”. Telecommunication providers, however, have thus far been deft at stalling the legislative efforts of both Parliament and City Council to enforce significant reductions.
A creeping sense of insecurity has developed into a sense of urgency as residents learn more about the BTS waves in which they sleep, work, and commute each day, and the few who have been successful in maneuvering a removal were only able to do so in court.
A BTS installation technician who goes by “Hamid” told HRANA that cellular service providers have little real incentive to respect national standards or municipal codes. Often, he said, they are able to contravene them by paying dues to the owners of tall buildings, or bribes to those responsible for enforcing the laws.
“This way, everyone benefits except the residents of the building,” Hamid said. “Observing [industry] BTS-installation standards is costly […] It is easier and more economical for the operators to pay bribes instead of observing the standards. Some would argue that respecting these standards isn’t feasible in Iran, but I believe that they could be enforced easily if they had more public buy-in.”
Hamid said that the Telecommunication Company of Iran (TCI) manages to sidestep industrial regulations by collaborating directly with cellular service providers. “All four Iranian network operators have to install a tower in each neighborhood. You can imagine how that increases emissions density,” he said.
BTS expansion increases by the day, as do the threat they pose to Iranian citizens’ health. This trend stands in conflict with section 1, article 2 of the Iranian Citizens’ Rights Charter: “Citizens have the right to enjoy a decent life and necessities thereof, such as clean water, adequate food, promotion of health, environment, appropriate medical treatment, access to medicines, and medical, medicinal and health equipment, supplies and services in compliance with current standards of science and national standards, and safe and sustainable environmental conditions.”
Afshin Hossein Panahi Released on Furlough
Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) – Political prisoner Afshin Hossein Panahi was released on furlough from Sanandaj Prison on Saturday, October 13, 2018.
A source closed to Panahi told HRANA that Panahi purchased a few days’ freedom with a 4 billion IRR (approximately $30,000 USD) bail.
On March 26, 2018, HRANA reported on the upholding of his eight-year, six-month sentence in the Kurdistan Province Appeals Court. He was initially sentenced October 2017 by judge Saeedi in the Sanandaj Revolutionary Court on charges of “propaganda against the regime” and “collaboration with a Kurdish opposition group through participation in a Nowruz ceremony.”
Panahi, who has a history of working with local environmental institutions, was arrested in his home on June 26, 2017, following the arrest of one of his brothers, Ramin Hossein Panahi. He was also detained for inquiring into the suspicious death of another one of his brothers, Ashraf Hossein Panahi, in 2011, which earned him a charge of “propaganda against the regime.”
Pursuant to a legally ambiguous process that drew outcry from human rights institutions internationally, Panahi’s brother Ramin was hanged to death alongside Zanyar Moradi and Loghman Moradi at an undisclosed location in Tehran on September 8th, 2018.
Trucker Strikes: Threat of Death Penalty Casts Shadow on 261 Detainees
Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA)- Since Iranian truck drivers announced a new wave of strikes on September 22nd, 261 striking drivers in 19 different provinces have been arrested. As authorities threaten detainees with the worst, their tenacious movement continues to push forward, obtaining small victories along the way.
Iranian General Prosecutor Mohammad Jafar Montazeri recommended harsh punishment for the detained drivers, previously assessing the strikes as a form of banditry, which he iterated “can be punishable by death.” Ghazvin Prosecutor Mohsen Karami announced that 17 of the detained drivers were being charged with “creating insecurity” and “disturbing public order,” and has called for the death penalty.
In a press release, the International Transport Workers Federation (ITF) expressed concern over these threats. “ITF affiliates globally are urging the Iranian government to listen to their truckers’ demands. It is economic solutions that are needed. Not threats of executions.” Transportation unions in the US and Canada, along with multiple news agencies and international federations, have gone public with similar concerns and statements of solidarity with the truckers.
Strikers’ demands have, in some respects, made significant headway. The High Council of Transportation Coordination recently approved a measurement tool for freight transport rates known as the tonne-kilometre (tkm) method, which would ensure more regulated compensation. “Adopting the tonne-kilometer system[…] put an end to 40 years of dispute between truck drivers and companies,” Malek Nakhyi, one of the drivers who will put the new system to use, told Tasnim news agency. “This measure will be a blessing to the Iranian transport industry.”
In talks with news agencies, state authorities claim to already have resolved the tire shortage, i.e. one of the truckers’ most pressing demands. However, Head of the Truckers’ Guild Association Ahmad Karimi told Iran Labour News Agency (ILNA) that only 50 thousand tires have thus far been distributed into a market that is in urgent need of 300 thousand more. “One of the truck drivers’ issues [with the system] is that the tires have no fixed price on the market, and representatives [of tire producers] set the price arbitrarily,” he added.
One truck driver told HRANA that a channel in Bandar Abbas ran a “false” broadcast of customs officials inspecting tires purchased in Iraq and Azerbaijan, with the claim that it was footage of tires being distributed to drivers.
The Truckers’ Guild Association listed 15 demands in its call to strike on September 22nd, among them an increase in pensions, the lowering of tire and auto-part prices, a 70% increase in the freight rate, cheaper insurance premiums, the elimination of go-betweens at terminals, and punishment of officers who arbitrarily demand bribes from drivers.
Merchant Arrested Amid Rumors of Impending Market Strike
Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA)- Security forces in Tabriz arrested Azerbaijani activist Mohammad Abdolmohammad-Zadeh Namrour on Wednesday, October 10, 2018, and transferred him to an undisclosed location.
An informed source speculated to HRANA that Namrour, a manufacturer in the Tabriz shoe market, was arrested in anticipation of the shoe market’s upcoming strike. This connection has yet to be confirmed.
Urban bazaars across Iran are the site of increasingly frequent strikes among merchants fed up with the symptoms of the current recession, including an unstable currency exchange, rising prices, and inflation.
Tabriz is located in northwestern Iran.
Citing Constitutional Trespass, Abbas Lasani Rejects Court’s Second Summons
Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) – Azerbaijani activist Abbas Lasani’s public dissent with the Iranian judicial system continued this week with his spurning, via open letter, of a second court subpoena that he decries as illegitimate. “I will not abide by the rule of tyranny, and thus I express my protest and rebellion against this illegal process, and against your oppressive conduct unbecoming of a court,” he wrote.
Via SMS on September 24th, Lasani learned he had been convicted in absentia in Branch 2 of Tabriz Revolutionary Court. On October 10th, a writ summoned him to hear the conviction in court within the next ten days.
“My verdict was delivered by a totally illegal and unlawful process that is neither reasonable nor acceptable,” Lasani wrote, explaining that constitutional article 168 stipulates that verdicts in political, press, or conscience cases must be tried in public and in the presence of the media.
HRANA reported September 16th on Lasani’s refusal to respond to an initial summons via text message from the same court. “It’s impossible to ignore that the summons is illegitimate, arriving by text message with no official hard copy,” Lasani said in a public statement.
Abbas Lasani was among a group of four Azerbaijani (Turk) activists residing in Ardebil arrested by Intelligence agents July 2, 2018, a few days before an annual gathering at Babak Fort, a site that has acquired symbolic importance for Azerbaijani rallies in recent years. Prior to his arrest, he had shared a video encouraging people to attend the gathering. He was released on 500 million rials [$3,500 USD] bail July 11, 2018. More than 80 Azerbaijani activists were arrested throughout Ardabil, West Azerbaijan, and East Azerbaijan provinces at the time of the Babak Fort gathering.
Amnesty International issued a statement on August 11th of this year, calling the arrests of Azerbaijani activists “arbitrary” and unlawful, and demanded the immediate release of all individuals detained for their participation in Azerbaijani Turkic cultural gatherings.
Six Members of Yamani Religious Group Arrested in Izeh
Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) – After a month of interrogations, six citizens arrested by security agents in the city of Izeh on September 8th have been accused of “contact with the ‘Mahdaviat’ religious group” and transferred to Izeh prison in the southwestern province of Khuzestan.
HRANA has identified the arrestees as Moslem Asadzadi, Sajjad Asadzadi, Abdollah Kavoosi, Habib Mohammadi, Peyman Andaveh, and Ali Ahmadi. A source close to the matter told HRANA that all six were members of a minority religious group called “Ansar Imam Mehdi” and their homes were searched upon their arrests.
“One of the people arrested was an 18-year-old,” the source said. “After one month of scrambling to learn about their whereabouts, we were informed this week that they’ve been transferred to prison and that a bail has been set.”
The source added that the wait has been difficult for their families. “These people were arrested for their faith and for supporting a religious movement,” they said.
Ansar Imam Mehdi is considered a sect of a larger Iranian religious movement called the Yamani faith. Yamanis are devotees of their spiritual leader Ahmad al-Hasan Yamani, who claims to be in contact with the 12th Shiite Imam.
The 12th Imam, known as Mehdi or Mahdi, is an eschatological figure who Shiites believe to be alive, hidden, and biding time to return and restore Islamic utopia. In recent years, many individuals claiming to be in contact with Mehdi were met with intolerance by Iranian authorities. Such claims run counter to the ideology of the Iranian authorities and have provoked the security apparatus to appoint divisions that specialize in quelling belief groups like the Yamanis.
HRANA reported earlier this year on crackdowns on Yamani followers in Torbat-Heydarieh and Qom.