A Daily Overview of Human Rights Violations in Iran for January 26, 2019

The following is an overview of human rights violations in Iran on January 26th, 2019 based on the information compiled and verified by Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA).

(1) Ali Varmarzyar, a seventh-grade student in Hamadan, was transferred to a hospital after being beaten by his teacher. The student’s left hand was injured in this incident.

(2) After being detained for almost two months, Maziyar Seyyednejad, a labor activist, has a bond set to be released on bail. He was arrested during Khuzestan workers’ protests on December 1st and was transferred to an unknown place.

(3) Hossein Rezaei, a teacher and the secretary of the teachers’ union in Bushehr, was arrested earlier today and transferred to an unknown place. He had been summoned twice to the intelligence office and was interrogated in the last week.

(4) Four elementary students were injured in a school vehicle roll over incident near Mashhad. Three girls and a boy were transferred to hospital.

(5) Three citizens, Farshid Feizollahi, Mehran Mohammadi, and Akam Ghaderi were arrested separately in Sanandaj and Bukan and their whereabouts are unknown. They are accused of ‘cooperation with a Kurdish opposition group’.

(6) More than 13 thousand people have lost their lives in traffic-related accidents in the past nine months. This marks a 0.7 percent increase compared to the last year. The majority of accidents have been reported in Fars, Isfahan, and Tehran provinces.

(7) An Arab citizen, 27-year-old Walid Zubaidi, was arrested on Thursday in Ramshir city. His whereabouts and the reason of his arrest are still unknown.

(8) The head of the Department of Environment in Kiasar city in Mazandaran province announced that two poachers were arrested and carcasses of two Caspian red deer were confiscated from them.

(9) Reza Khandan Mahabadi, a writer and member of the Iranian Writers Association, was released on bail. He was arrested along with two other writers, Keyvan Bazhan and Baktash Abtin on January 22. Their charge is “encouraging immorality or prostitution”.

(10) Five construction workers were injured in Chabahar city because of negligence in the oversight of safety conditions in the workplace. Chabahar is in Sistan and Baluchestan Province.

(11) More than 700 artists who had gathered at the Theater Forum’s venue in Tehran, signed a letter condemning the mass arrest of theater artists and directors by the judicial system. 

(12) The director of the Iranshahr University of Medical Sciences announced that a Ringworm outbreak has been observed among students in Shamsabad village in Iranshahr. He added that this disease is highly contiguous and is caused by unhygienic lifestyle.

(13) More than 800 people have signed a statement in which they expressed their concerns for Esmail Bakhshi and Sepideh Gholian conditions and requested their immediate release. They were rearrested after the broadcast of their confessions on the national television.