Update on Arrestees of Recent Protest in Isfahan

A crackdown on protests in Isfahan has led to the arrest of at least 214 people. 12 days after the mass arrests, an unknown number of people, including several children, are still in detention.

According to HRANA, the news agency of Human Rights Activists, some detainees were forced to pledge not to leave the house next Friday as a condition for release.

In announcing the release of some detainees, Chief Justice of Isfahan Province, Asadollah Jafari stated that they, “have opened legal cases against these arrestees and as promised… have launched special branches to address these cases”. 

This protest began on November 7, when farmers assembled at the office of Hossein Mirzaie to ask for their water portion for wheat cultivation, and protest against water supply mismanagement.

Farmers continued their protest by assembling in dried up stretches of the river Zayandeh Rud.  In the following days, other citizens joined the protest.

On Friday, November 26, a farmers’ protest in Isfahan over water mismanagement turned violent after military and police forces used tear gas and live ammunition on protesters.

A Daily Overview of Human Rights Violations in Iran for December 21, 2018

The following is an overview of human rights violations in Iran on December 21th, 2018 based on the information compiled and verified by Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA).

(1) A school bus driver in Bandar-e Mahshahr is facing charges after being accused of sexually assaulting a girl while transporting students. Two other school bus drivers were arrested yesterday.

(2) Two Sunni clerics, Molavi Khodabakhsh Eslamdoust and Molavi Esmail Eslamdoust were summoned to the Revolutionary Court in Chabahar.

(3) An 11-year-old hanged himself in Izeh due to poverty. More than 7% of suicides in Iran are committed by teenagers. Iranian news agencies reported that he committed suicide due to a family conflict, but some news in cyber space noted it happened because of poverty. Izeh is a city in Khuzestan province.

(4) Iranian border patrol shot three Kurdish couriers also known as kulbars, Rahman Shovaneh, Nader Nabizadeh, and AliMamand in Oshnavieh, Piranshahr, and Sardasht. Another kulbar, Salar Tanhaei, was found dead from hypothermia in Javanrud.

(5) Water crisis will cause 20 million people to migrate from the south of Iran. Ali Asadi Karam, a member of the parliament added that this migration which is due to the water scarcity will have so many social consequences.

(6) A prisoner in Nowshahr who was arrested on charge of murder and was sentenced to death, was saved from execution after 10 years in jail with forgiveness and consent of the next of kin. His execution was scheduled the next week.

(7) Three firefighters were injured in an unsafe workplace-related incident in a warehouse in Mashhad.

(8) A Sunni prisoner, Moloud Shaier, was released on parole from Urmia prison. She was arrested in January 2016 and was sentenced to 5 years imprisonment on charges of “collaborating with Salafi groups”.

(9) Sam Nasir Moghadam is a political prisoner who was sentenced to two years imprisonment on charge of ‘propaganda against the State’ and ‘insulting the Supreme Leader’.

(10) Reporters Without Borders (RSF) had written to UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, about the conditions of detained journalists in Iran, which is one of the world’s five biggest jailers of journalist. According to the worldwide round-up on deadly violence and abusive treatment of media personnel that RSF published yesterday. “Imprisoning journalists, denying them medical care while they are detained and denying them the right to a fair trial constitute a flagrant violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Iran is party,” RSF points out.