A video about the distressing situation of Iranian journalists which has been prepared by the International Committee to Protect Journalists:
Video: Iran’s journalists in chains
CPJ’s Video: Iran’s journalists in chains
Amnsety International: Iranian hunger strikers in critical condition
HRANA News Agency – Amnesty International warns about the critical condition of two Dervishes who are on the hunger strike.
Document – Iran: Iranian hunger strikers in critical condition
UA: 88/13 Index: MDE 13/018/2013 Iran Date: 12 April 2013
URGENT ACTION
IRANIAN HUNGER STRIKERS IN CRITICAL CONDITION
Two men imprisoned in Adel Abad Prison in Shiraz, south-west Iran, are in critical condition after a prolonged hunger strike protesting the harsh treatment of dervishes, including lawyers, in Tehran’s Evin Prison. They have been beaten, have lost consciousness several times, and are being kept alive by intravenous drips in prison. (more…)
Amnesty International: “TV confessions” and the death penalty in Iran
HRANA News Agency – Amnesty International has warned about TV confessions and death penalties in Iran.
“Suspects are forced to appear on national or local television to admit to alleged crimes – often before their court proceedings have even started. These “confessions” are then accepted as evidence in court, seriously undermining any prospect of a fair trial” says the Amnety International In a statement on April 11, 2013. (more…)
AMNESTY URGENT ACTION: Iranian Ahwazi Arabs on hunger strike over death sentences
HRANA News Agency – Five prisoners have been refusing food since start of March in protest at sentences and ill-treatment, says Amnesty
Five members of Iran’s Ahwazi Arab minority sentenced to death following trials described by activists as grossly unfair are on hunger strike in protest at their conviction and ill-treatment in jail.
(more…)
UN Human Rights Council Overwhelmingly Votes to Renew Iran Mandate
HRANA News Agency – Human Rights Council rapporteur finds “widespread systemic and systematic violations of human rights” in Iran.
BERLIN – The Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council voted on Friday to extend by one year the mandate of the special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran. (more…)
Kerry calls for ‘immediate’ release of Iran detained Christian Saeed Abedini
HRANA News Agency – Secretary of State John Kerry, in a first-ever statement from his office on the case of imprisoned Iranian-American Saeed Abedini, called Friday for Abedini to be “immediately released” and said he is “disturbed” by reports that he’s suffered physical and psychological abuse at the Iranian prison where he’s being held.
The statement was released by Kerry late Friday afternoon, and it came after the attorneys representing Abedini’s family released a letter the Christian pastor sent to his wife describing how he was beaten and denied medical treatment because he was seen as “unclean” because of his faith.
(more…)
Amnesty- Iran must release journalists detained in newspaper office raids
HRANA News Agency– Amnesty International -Iran must release all journalists being held solely for carrying out their legitimate work, Amnesty International urged after at least 14 reporters were arrested in the past three days amid police raids on newspaper offices.
The journalists are reportedly accused of cooperating with “anti-revolutionary” Persian-language media organizations outside Iran.
(more…)
HRW- Iran: Stop Execution of Ahwazi Arab Political Prisoners
HRANA News Agency – Human Rights Watch (London) – Iran’s judiciary should quash death sentences against five members of Iran’s Ahwazi Arab minority and immediately cancel their execution, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch said today. The sentences were handed down by a revolutionary court and upheld by the country’s Supreme Court on January 9, 2013.
The five men – Mohammad Ali Amouri, Sayed Jaber Alboshoka and his brother Sayed Mokhtar Alboshoka, Hashem Sha’bani Amouri, and Hadi Rashidi (or Rashedi) – are all activists in Iran’s Arab-majority Khuzestan province, in southwest Iran. A branch of the Revolutionary Court sentenced them to death on terrorism-related charges following an unfair trial in July 2012. On January 18, authorities informed families gathered outside Karoun Prison in the south-western city of Ahvaz that the five men had been transferred out of the prison. Their whereabouts are unknown. (more…)
IRAN: Threats against media workers and families show regime’s true face
Reporters Without Borders once again expresses its grave concern at the arbitrary arrests of journalists and netizens and the threats made against the families of foreigners and Iranians working for media organizations in Iran.
In the past three years, the press freedom organization has recorded a dozen arrests and instances of threats against the families of journalists working for foreign-based organizations and international news agencies.
In the past two months, several journalists and netizens have been summoned for questioning in cities such as Tehran, Bushehr, Karaj and Qazvin, two of them aged just 14 and 15. (more…)
Amnesty – Iran: Brother of prominent filmmaker arrested
AMNESTY URGENT ACTION
Behrouz Ghobadi, brother of internationally acclaimed Iranian film maker, Bahman Ghobadi, was arrested on 4 November 2012 by men in plain clothes, believed to belong to the Ministry of Intelligence. He is reportedly being held in a Ministry of Intelligence detention centre, placing him at risk of torture or other ill-treatment.
Behrouz Ghobadi, father of a newborn baby boy and a member of the Kurdish minority in Iran, was arrested in the early hours of the morning of 4 November. He was in a taxi driving from Sanandaj, the capital of the north-western Kordestan province, to a Tehran airport. Plain-clothes men, who were reportedly following him, stopped his car and arrested him around 15 kilometres outside Sanandaj. Judicial officials claim that they had an arrest warrant but the reasons for his arrest do not appear to have been disclosed to his family or lawyer. (more…)