Iran: Renewed attacks on the mandate of UN Special Rapporteur

Last Update 31 August 2013

 

FIDH and its member organization, the League for the Defence of Human Rights in Iran (LDDHI), express their disappointment at recent statements by Iranian high-level officials regarding the Islamic Republic of Iran’s persistent rejection of the mandate of UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran. 

FIDH and LDDHI believe that a country visit by the mandate holder, Dr Ahmed Shaheed, would be a very positive step forward for Iran to engage in a constructive dialogue on human rights with the international community. 

Several representatives of the Islamic Republic of Iran declared, over the past few days, that Dr Ahmed Shaheed shall not be allowed to visit Iran. Mr Abbas Araghchi, spokesperson of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, announced on 27 August 2013 that Iran does not consider Ahmed Shaheed to be “a fair rapporteur”. On the same day, Mr Mohammad Javad Larijani, Secretary-General of the Iranian Judiciary’s High Council for Human Rights, declared that Dr Shaheed’s request shall “not be taken seriously”. These statements followed two letters sent by the Special Rapporteur to the office of President Hassan Rohani, requesting an invitation for a country visit. 

“There is nothing new in these recent remarks by Iranian officials. They clearly show that the new government of the Islamic Republic of Iran does not intend to cooperate with the UN more than the previous one. This policy, which has already led to the increasing isolation of Iran, can only further deepen the exasperation of the Iranian people, who are the first to bear the brunt of such a situation”, FIDH President Karim Lahidji said. 

The UN General Assembly will commence its 68th session in a few weeks. In this context, Dr Shaheed is due to present his report on the human rights situation in Iran In the past, the refusal of Iranian authorities to let him visit the country have left him with no other alternative than to report back their lack of cooperation and denounce reports of serious human rights violations, including the arbitrary detention of human rights defenders and members of the opposition, torture, public executions, etc.

Link:
http://www.fidh.org/iran-renewed-attacks-on-the-mandate-of-un-special-rapporteur-13891

Letter to president-elect Hassan Rouhani regarding rights reform

 Source: Fri, 2 Aug 2013 02:58 PM

Author: Joe Stork/Human Rights Watch

Your Excellency:

We are writing to you to express our serious concerns regarding Iranians’ human rights, and to request that you fulfill your campaign promises to prioritize human rights during your presidency. On August 4, 2013 you will be sworn in as the seventh president of the Islamic Republic of Iran after an election campaign in which you made many promises to the Iranian people—promises that played a role in your victory. These include promises to expand personal freedoms and respect for individuals’ rights.

While we acknowledge the many difficulties and challenges that lie ahead, we hope that you will use your good offices to ensure improvements in the following key areas:

Free Political Prisoners:As you are well aware, today there are hundreds of political prisoners in Iran’s jails. Many were arbitrarily arrested and detained after the 2009 presidential election,prosecuted in unfair trials, and convicted on various “national security” crimes not recognized by international law. They are in prison today merely because they exercised their basic rights, including freedom of expression and association and peaceful assembly. In many cases, their prosecutions violate Iran’s Constitution, which mandates that the law must define “political offenses” and prosecute alleged offenders in the presence of a jury.

During your campaign, you referred several times to political prisoners, including Mir Hossein Mousavi, Zahra Rahnavard, and Mehdi Karroubi, who have been arbitrarily detained under house arrest. These opposition figures have spent nearly two and a half years in detention without charge, clearly in violation of Iranian and international law. Human Rights Watch urges you to prioritize their release as a preliminary sign of your commitment to safeguarding one the most fundamental of rights—the right to peaceful dissent.

We also ask you to push for the immediate and unconditional release of all other political prisoners, including hundreds of political and civic activists, journalists, lawyers, and rights defenders. The release of these prisoners should be accompanied by policy changes to allow them to continue their peaceful activities upon release, including protecting their right to membership in opposition political parties. In the meantime, Human Rights Watch believes it is imperative that you speak out against theabuse, ill-treatment, torture, harassment, and systematic denial of access to necessary medical treatment in many prisons and detention facilities throughout the country.

Support a Moratorium on Executions:Since your electoral victory on June 15, unofficial and official sources have reported at least 71 executions. In 2012, Iran was one of the world’s foremost executioners, with more than 500 prisoners hanged either in prisons or in public. For the past several years, Iran has had the second largest number of executions in the world, behind China.

Human Rights Watch opposes capital punishment in all circumstances because of its irreversible, cruel, and inhumane nature. Nonetheless, there are compelling reasons why your administration should, at the very least, push for a moratorium on executions. The vast majority of executions in Iran are fordrug-related offenses or other offenses not considered serious enough to warrant the death penalty under international law. In other cases where courts have issued death sentences, such as for murder, Human Rights Watch and other rights groups have documented serious due process violations that often taint the validity of the underlying convictions. We urge your administration to conduct a full review of the death penalty during the imposition of a moratorium, with a view to abolishing the practice altogether.

Remove Press and Media Restrictions:As of June 2013 there were more than 50 journalists and bloggers behind bars in Iran. Numerous security and intelligence agencies heavily censor the press and print media, implementing and enforcing a dizzying array of censorship rules and “red lines” that Iranians cannot cross without risking arrest, detention, and conviction. These restrictions extend to television and the Internet, and authorities routinely block or filter websites, jam satellite signals, and slow Internet speeds, depriving Iranians of freedom of the press and access to information.

During your presidential campaign, and since your electoral victory, you made numerous statements bemoaning Iran’s strict government censorship, including on social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook. On June 29, for example, a tweet from your account read: “The system that takes its [legitimacy] from [the people should] not [be] afraid of [a] free media.” In line with these statements, we urge you to implement policies during the next four years that encourage, not prohibit, freedom of the press and the Internet. Your choice in cabinet appointments for key ministry posts, including the Ministries of Technology and Culture, can lay the foundation for removing many of these unlawful restrictions.

Expand Academic Freedom: During your campaign you often decried the increased “securitization” of Iranian society, noting particularly greater control and interference by security and intelligence forces in and around university campuses. In recent years authorities have severely limited freedom of thought and choice at Iran’s universities, once a source of national and international pride. Professors at Tehran’s Sharif University recently wrote a letter to you stating that universities look to you to restore educational control and autonomy to the “rightful stakeholders—the students and professors.”

We urge you to follow up on your campaign promises to expand academic freedom by appointing a Minister of Science who will implement serious reform policies in higher education. The minister’s priorities should be to reinstate dozens of professors forced to retire during the past eight years seemingly because of their views; restrict the growing influence of the basij and security forces on campuses; remove disciplinary boards that unlawfully monitor students’ activities and suspend or expel them solely because they have exercised their fundamental rights; roll back regressive gender-based policies that separate the sexes on campus and which limit academic choice; scrap plans to remove or restrict social science curricula; and allow organizations like Tahkim-e Vahdat, one of the country’s largest student groups, which has been banned since 2009, to resume operating.

Unshackle Civil Society: You have repeatedly acknowledged the critical role that civil society plays in the growth and development of a healthy society. In a post-election speech you said: “A strong government does not mean a government that interferes and intervenes in all affairs. It is not a government that limits the lives of people.” And in a recent interview you responded favorably to a question asking whether the now-banned Iranian Journalists Association could resume work.

During the past eight years, Iranians have witnessed an assault on a once vibrant and independent civil society. Authorities have shut down dozens of non-governmental organizations, independent trade and labor unions, and other groups. The Iranian Bar Association, Shirin Ebadi’s Center for Human Rights Defenders, and the House of Cinema are examples of groups that have either been shut down, declared unlawful, or severely restricted. During the next four years, we urge you to appoint appropriate ministers to implement policies to remove unnecessary burdens on civil society, and allow Iranians to freely associate with groups that can play an important role in improving their everyday lives.

Respect Women’s Rights: At a recent Tehran gathering, which your advisors attended, activists noted that much of the recent rollback on women’s rights results from regressive policies, and not laws, implemented by the previous administration. While we recognize that the president has limited ability to directly change discriminatory personal status laws related to marriage, inheritance, and child custody, we believe that your administration should nonetheless support efforts to amend or abolish such laws, and implement progressive policies to improve the lives of Iranian women.

Your administration can take concrete steps to improve women’s rights, consistent withstatements you made before and after the election, including: appointment of officials in ministries or positions of power, including women, who favor policies intended to improve women’s rights; initiating a national dialogue aimed at empowering civil society groups, like the One Million Signatures Campaign, to resume their peaceful activities to change Iran’s discriminatory laws; reversing recent restrictions imposed on population control programs, including access to birth control; opposing regressive gender-based policiesin universitiesthat disproportionately affect women, and in public spaces such as sporting venues; and working to end security crackdowns on women who are deemed not to properly abide by the strict dress code.

Guarantee Minority Rights: Today, millions of people among Iran’s ethnic and religious minorities are subjected to legal or effective discrimination in their political participation, employment, and the exercise of their social and cultural rights. This discrimination is particularly acute vis-à-vis members of Iran’s evangelical and Protestant Christian communities, Baha'is, and Sufi groups such as theNematollahi Gonabadi order, who are systematically targeted and deprived of the right to practice their faith. Iran’s significant Sunni population, too, faces unnecessary restrictions. Poverty, illiteracy, and harsh security policies disproportionately affect the periphery of the country, home to many of Iran’s ethnic minority communities, including Azeris, Arabs, Kurds and the Baluch.

During your election campaign, you indicated that you would appoint a senior aide to “attend to the issues and demands of our minorities.” While the establishment of such post is a step in the right direction, it is only a start. We urge you and your administration to implement policies that ensureequal protection of the law for all Iranians, irrespective of ethnicity and faith.

Push for the Eradication of Inhumane Practices: Recentlythe Guardian Council approved anamended penal code that retains many punishments that clearly violate Iran’s international legal obligations. Examples of these punishments include stoning and execution of child offenders, defined under international law as persons under age 18 who have commit offenses. While the amended penal code eliminates the death penalty for child offenders charged with certain crimes, it still allows a judge to sentence a child offender to death for other crimes, such as adultery or murder, if the judge believes that the accused was mature enough to understand the consequences of his or her actions.

In recent years, there has been serious discussion, including among Iranian lawmakers and Judiciary officials, about the need to amend the penal code to prohibit stoning and execution of child offenders. Human Rights Watch recognizes that you can play an important role in reviving the national debate on banning these inhumane practices, and we urge you to use your good offices to do so.

Cooperate with UN Rights Bodies: The Iranian government’s record of cooperation with international institutions, particularly organs of the United Nations, remains poor. Iran has continuously denied access to UN thematic special procedures of the Human Rights Council since 2005, despite Iran’s formal standing invitation and longstanding and repeated requests for invitations to visit addressed by several Rapporteurs. Iran has similarly denied access to the UN Special Rapporteur on Iran, Dr. Ahmed Shaheed, appointed in 2011 by the Human Rights Council in response to the deteriorating human rights situationin your country and the absence of Iran’s engagement with thematic special procedures.

The Iranian government has also failed to implement the recommendations of General Assembly resolutions and, UN expert bodies, as well as dozens of recommendations member states made in 2010 during Iran’s Universal Periodic Review. Many of the recommendations related to accountability for torture and killings perpetrated by Iranian officials following the wide-scale crackdown that followed the 2009 presidential election. To date, no high-ranking official has been adequately brought to account for these gross violations.

We urge you to reverse this trend, and to use the president’s good offices to ensure cooperation with UN rights organs, including allowing Dr. Ahmed Shaheed to visit the country so that he can carry out his UN mandate.

***

Finally,weask that you allow Human Rights Watch staff members to visit Iran so that we can further discuss these issues with your administration and other officials in an effort to improve Iranians’ access to human rights. Despite repeated efforts by Human Rights Watch to gain access to Iran so that we can independently monitor human rights there, we have not been allowed entry since the 1990s. We sincerely hope that your inauguration signals a new willingness on the part of the Iranian government to engage with international human rights organizations.

We thank you for your immediate attention to these important matters, and look forward to hearing from your office in the near future.

Joe Stork is Acting Director of Human Rights Watch's Middle East Division. The views expressed here are his own and not those of Thomson Reuters Foundation.

This letter first appeared on Human Rights watch's website

Any views expressed in this article are those of the author and not of Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Link:
http://www.trust.org/item/20130802145851-325b7/ 
 

Islamic Regime Continues its Veer & Haul / Fast & Loose Policies .......

Islamic regime in its continuation of Veer & Haul Policy brought in again its " patrol officers for Guidance" . With this policy regime tries to show its muscle and control people by stopping them in the streets and asking them to follow the regime dress code of "Hejab "

According to news , last night ,these forces were present at Salar Aghili's concert and arrested few women and were about to take them to their van when people in group protested to their action ,then they started arresting those protesters and arrested  20 individuals including relative of Mr. Salar Aghili. Before the show Mr. Aghili regret for this incident and told people he is with people.
Link:
http://www.akhbar-rooz.com/article.jsp?essayId=54948
http://www.isna.ir/fa/news/92060804716/

Khavaran Cemetery , Commemoration on the 25th year ........

Anoushirvan Lotfi's mom is the symbol of "Khavaran mom's", mom's who have lost their son's or daughters in the Mass execution of political prisoners in the summer of 1987-88 and buried in Khavaran Cemetery by the Islamic regime. Mrs. Forough Tajbakhsh is Anoushirvan's mom,

she spent her life from year 1970 ( During the regime of Shah) around the prison and from 1987-88 ( During the Islamic regime)around the cemeteries . Her son Anoushirvan was one of thousands of Iranian political prisoners who were executed in mass by Islamic regime without proper lawyer and trial. Mrs. Tajbakhsh since that time stood for justice on the case of Khavaran.
Many of her colleagues passed away but the torch is still going hand to hand and the fight continued for justice for these mothers.

In a message she wrote on the 25th commemoration we read:
Greeting to you Khavaran and to your soil and to all those who are put to sleep under your soil,
You have taken our loved ones and kept their bodies for 25 years,
In a place where ,there are no names, no sign's and is covered with weeds and thorn's,  
But one day ,we will make this place like a rose Garden, and it will become,
Yes, 25 years have passed , and how fast it has gone, 
but what went on us (the family members) , we know , 
ok, we have tolerated all and will tolerate ,
but hoping for the freedom one day 
and a better future for the people of this land.
Anoushirvan's mom
August 30,2013
Link:
http://www.akhbar-rooz.com/article.jsp?essayId=54946
In another news ,
Like previous year the
Security forces have prevented family members to gather in Khavaran Cemetery to commemorate and summoned them. Mansoureh Behkish one of family member reported about the summons.

Focus on Middle East....... Arab Spring !!!??????

Corrupt states politicians, puppets , life time power lovers are to be blamed for all the misery of  Middle Eastern nations . Why Middle Eastern can't enjoy democracy and have a democratic Government. Why Middle Eastern people can't participate in their national politics and their destiny? Why not freedom of all political parties and election based on political parties to campaign in a electoral system ,to win and to run the Government ?!!
And now Look at the Middle East ? Is this what the Middle Eastern people wanted? Is this what many people died for?
War.... Foreign Intervention , mass killing and mass asylum seekers and...

Islamic Regime in Iran ......One Man's Show ........For Now.......

Khamenei the leader of the Islamic regime in Iran with newly elected Government and cabinet ministers ....

Now that Ahmadinejad is gone ,the judiciary called his first deputy for interrogation !

According to a report by " Tasnim" and without naming the first deputy , it wrote about an investigation going on the corruption in "Iran insurance ". The judiciary said; there is no red line on judiciary case file. Other media reported : Mr. " M. R " is arrested. In the past Mohammad Reza Rahimi the first deputy to Ahmadinejad was charged for his connection with Iran Isurance corruption and also Mr. Mostafa Pourmohammadi the past auditor general also charged Mr. Rahimi for corruption but with Khamenei's intervention the case was put aside.
Link:
https://khodnevis.org/article/52372#.Uh6sVGTXiQg

Hosein Ronaghi an Iranian political prisoner is going to die inside prison and no one in the Government doing anything!

Hosein Ronaghi's an Iranian political prisoner is on hunger strike for 20 days now and as a result lost too much weight and his health condition deteriorated . Mr. Ronaghi went on hunger strike because of his health condition which need medical attention. As a result of
long time solitary confinement , his kidney damaged and despite of request from family members , no authorities paid attention to his demand. Here is what Mr. Ronaghi's dad said to the authorities:

"Hosein was a student of this country , he wanted to finish his study and work for his country, but they throw him in jail and he spent 13 months plus 13 days in solitary confinement and as a result his kidney is damaged , then they prepared a case for hime and now they wanted to murder him"
"The officials are saying they did not know about his health situation but they are lying , he has case file in two hospital . Doctors who have examined him said: 90 % of his left kidney isn't working and his right kidney is doing the other kidney's job and his right kidney is also infected. "
He has other medical issues to and as a result of hunger strike his life is in great danger.

Mr. Ronaghi's father said , he has been wondered in Tehran for 32 days and did everything but no one is listening and at the end he asked all the officials including judiciary and Mr. Rohani the president to look into this case and he said; he is doing all this ,because he doesn't want to be blamed when he passed away , and he called for a rescuer .......
To the authorities he said:
"It seems that the life of humans isn't important for the officials, who should respond for legal problems, dont we have the rights to live in this country? "
Link:
http://news.gooya.com/politics/archives/2013/08/165971.php

Mr. Ataollah Rezvani a servant member of Bahai Faith is shot to death in the city of Bandar Abbas !

Newly Elect president & Governor of Bandar Abbas must investigate on these cases and report to the media!
Islamic Apartheid over Bahai , Sunni , Dervishes and other faiths continues .......Will Rohani create a delegate to look into these cases and report to the media?   
Mr. Ataollah Rezvani as a three member delegate  Servant of Bahai faith is shot to death in the city of Bandar Abbas.

Mr. Rezvani was hit by bullet from behind on last Saturday . His family member told to "Zamaneh Radio" that, in the past Mr. Rezvani was threatened for many times by Bandar Abbas city Friday prayer imam and Ministry of Information officials .

Also in the past , Mr. Miad Afshar and Iraj Maydani the two famous Bahai in the city of Bandar Abbas were wounded with sword /Machete by elements close to Friday Prayer Imam . And Mr. Iraj Mehdinejad another Bahai in the city of Bandar Abbas was murdered by knife a few years ago.
Mr. Rezvani was an expelled Mechanical student from university during Cultural Revolution and he was 52 years old . His family members are also under constant threat , interrogation and pressure.
Mr. Ataollah Rezvani was a Water pump salesman and the Ministry of Information official in the city of Bandar Abbas told everyone not to do business with Mr. Rezvani.
Link:
http://www.radiozamaneh.com/93640#.UhycDLwTfx4

 IRAN WATCH CANADA:
Who can hear and see these injustices and Apartheid in my country and not to go through pain and sorrow. Bahai, Sufi Dervishes , Sunni's, Jewish , Catholics, all are our countrymen & women, our brother and sisters and we have lived together for hundreds of years . The Islamic Regime in Iran and their Friday prayers IMams in all over Iran can say all the prayers they can but conscious Iranian people won't forget these apartheid and will remember what this regime did to our people and country. 

Will Newly Elect president Rohani agrees to the visit of Ahmed Shaheed the UN Human Rights Reporter to Iran ? Increasing Pressure over Balouchi & Sunni Political Prisoners by Islamic Regime in Iran !

Alert....Alert.....Alert.....Alert......
Life of Abdolvahab Rigi a Balouchi & Sunni political prisoner is in great danger !

Abdolvahab Rigi was arrested when he was 17 years old and was sentenced to death and recently prison official transferred him from the prison ward to "quarantine " section in Zahedan city Central prison. Has the regime judiciary decided to murder this young man in the prison?

Abdolvahab's brother Abdolbaset Rigi a blogger and two other political prisoners were executed in the past.
Increasing Pressure over Balouchi & Sunni Political Prisoners by Islamic Regime in Iran !
Islamic regime in Iran continue its pressure over the Balouchi and Sunni political prisoners. Sunni Balouchi opposition in the city of "Zahedan" close to the border of Afghanistan are deliberately targeted because of their opposition to the discriminatory policies of the regime in the region.

In another news , Mr. Nazer Molazehi another political prisoner in Zahedan City Central prison is on his 6th day of hunger strike.

UN Human Rights Council must put more pressure on regime to agree Dr. Ahmed Shaheed's visit to Iran political prisoners situation and to prison system.
Link:
http://www.hrdai.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1327%3A1392-06-03-10-52-32&catid=1%3A2010-07-21-10-18-57&Itemid=4

How Can We Forget These Prisoners of Conscience ?

It is in the news.....

1- According to " Mehr " news agency , Said Malekpour's sentence is changed from death sentence to life imprisonment. Mr. Mahmoud Alizadeh Tabatabaei lawyer of Mr. Malekpour informed this news to media today.

Said Malekpour is the Iranian -Canadian web designer who designed web which according to judiciary officials of the Islamic regime it insulted the leader of the Islamic regime , Islam and president.
Mr. Alizadeh said , the change in the sentence came because his client requested from authorities for forgiveness and he repented from his action. Said Malekpour have been in prison since October 2008. Said was continuing his education in computer programming and one of the website that has used his software was a pornographic website. Said was arrested by Revolutionary Guard known as " Sepahe Pasdaran".
Link to this news:
http://news.gooya.com/politics/archives/2013/08/165868.php

2- Political prisoner Hosein Ronaghi  and his mother continue their hunger strike in protest to Hosein's health condition inside the prison. Hosein is in his 18th days of hunger strike and his mom is her one week of hunger strike. Hosein was transferred to Hasheminejad Hospital due to bleeding of kidney / stomach related issues. His situation is called critical.

Hunger strike by mother is a least things a mother can do for her son who is dying inside Islamic Republic prison.
Do anybody care?
Link:
http://news.gooya.com/politics/archives/2013/08/165859.php

Magazines are continued to be closed with protest by "Pressure Elements" !

According to news , "Negin" a magazine published in the city of Kerman is closed because of alleged publication of a Satire known as " Where is the Foreign country?"  which became the causes of protest by " Pressure Elements" .
The magazine is charged with, insult to Holy believes and propagating against the Islamic State.
Mr. Karimizadeh the managing editor of Negin magazine in the city of Kerman and others involved in publishing the article are going to stand on trial by the court in the city of Kerman. These people will go on trial based on section seven of Article nine of the media law.
The " Pressure Forces " or  "Ansare Hezbollah" who are employed by regime in Ministry of Information in Basij , in Herasat offices , in Universities and ..... in every city's in the country acting in accordance with fundamentalist elements against reformists,pro-green movement and independent forces in Iran.  
In the past these pressure elements also demanded authorities to close another publication in the city of Sirjan known as " Pasargad" and arrested Hesamodin Eslamlo the cultural editor of the publication.


 

Iran: Free Ethnic Rights Activists

For Immediate Release

Iran: Free Ethnic Rights Activists
Five Demanded Greater Rights for Azeri Minority

(Beirut, August 21, 2013) – Iranian officials should immediately and unconditionally release five Azeri ethnic minority rights activists, Human Rights Watch said today. The five were sentenced to heavy prison terms solely for their membership in a party that peacefully works for the civil and cultural rights of the country’s Azeri ethnic minority. An appeals court recently affirmed nine-year prison sentences for each of the five men.

The five were convicted in a closed two-day trial for “founding an illegal group” and “propaganda against the state” in connection with their membership in Yeni GAMOH, an Azeri party, members told Human Rights Watch. Yeni GAMOH, which stands for “New Southern Azerbaijan National Awakening Movement” in the Azeri language, has for more than a decade promoted Azeri cultural and linguistic identity, along with secularism and the right to self-determination for the Azeris of Iran, members say.

“Speaking out peacefully for their rights or for more autonomy is no reason to send members of a minority group away for long prison terms,” said Joe Stork, acting Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “We have seen no evidence suggesting that these men, or their group, have done anything but exercise their right to protest.”

With an estimated population of at least 15 million, mostly concentrated in Iran’s northwest regions, Azeris constitute the country’s largest ethnic minority.

On June 16, 2013, an appeals court in the northwestern city of Tabriz upheld the nine-year prison sentences for Mahmoud Fazli, Ayat Mehrali Beyglou, Shahram Radmehr, Latif Hassani, and Behboud Gholizadeh on national security-related charges. The ruling came less than two months after they were convicted by Branch 3 of the Tabriz Revolutionary Court. The five men are currently in Rajai Shahr Prison, in the city of Karaj, 47 kilometers west of Tehran, the capital.

Security forces arrested four of the men in cities in the Azeri-majority provinces of northwestern Iran between December 31, 2012, and February 16, 2013. Hassani was arrested on February 6 in Karaj. Officials transferred the men to the central prison in Tabriz in early March, after agents from the Intelligence Ministry interrogated them for several weeks in a ministry detention facility, according to information provided by Sajjad Radmehr, the brother of Shahram Radmehr.

Radmehr said that the men were abused physically and psychologically during the interrogation. He said that after his arrest his brother began to suffer from severe headaches and that he had lost consciousness three times during his interrogation.

Several of the other detainees also suffer from ailments that require proper medical care, which the family members say they are not receiving in prison. On July 13 the five men initiated a hunger strike to protest their unfair trial and the conditions of their detention, family members say.

Zahra Farajzadeh, Beyglou’s wife, told Human Rights Watch that none of the defendants’ lawyers had access to their case files during the investigation phase, which was carried out by the Intelligence Ministry. She said that the lawyers repeatedly requested a delay in the trial until they had time to review the charges against their clients and prepare a proper defense, but that the judge convened the trial a week after allowing them access to the files. Farajzadeh also said that the appellate court refused to consider the lawyers’ appeal to vacate the lower court’s judgment on the basis of numerous trial irregularities.

Fatemeh Heidari, Fazli’s wife, told Human Rights Watch that after the men went on the hunger strike, authorities threatened to transfer them to prisons in Tehran as punishment. Hediari said that in early August, prison officials transferred the men to Tehran’s Evin Prison without notifying their families. Officials later moved them to Rajai Shahr Prison, where they are currently being held. All five have ended their hunger strike.

The detainees are all members of Yeni GAMOH’s central committee, and Hassani is the party’s general secretary. Authorities had arrested the men in 2010 in connection with their membership in the group, and revolutionary courts had sentenced them to various prison terms, ranging from six to 18 months, on charges similar to those handed down in April.

Radmehr served his six-month sentence prior to his latest arrest, while the others had not yet been summoned to serve their terms. According to Sajjad Radmehr, 20 members of the group had been arrested in 2010, and the authorities had repeatedly warned the five detainees to stop their activities before this latest round of arrests.

Several of the men, including Fazli and Gholizadeh, had prior arrest records in connection with other activities on behalf of Azeri rights, including the Lake Urmia demonstrations in September 2011, which led to the arrests of dozens of protesters.

The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Iran is a party, requires authorities to conduct a “fair and public hearing by a competent, independent, and impartial tribunal,” and allow defendants “adequate time and facilities for the preparation of their defense.” Article 27 of the covenant requires Iran to respect the rights of members of minorities, in community with the other members of their group, to enjoy their own culture, to profess and practice their own religion, and to use their own language.

Article 15 of Iran’s Constitution designates Persian as the “official and shared language of Iran” but allows for the “use of local and ethnic languages in groups’ press and media and teaching of their literature in schools alongside Persian.” Article 19 of the constitution states that, “the people of Iran, no matter what ethnicity or tribe, have equal rights, and attributes such as color or race or language will not be a reason for privilege.”

On August 1 Human Rights Watch wrote an open letter to Hassan Rouhani, then the president-elect, urging him to implement policies “ensuring equal protection of law for all Iranians, irrespective of ethnicity and faith.”

“Iran’s treatment of its largest ethnic minority, the Azeris, says a lot about the government’s attitude toward basic rights and equal protection of the law for all Iranians,” Stork said. “Judging by the treatment of these five activists, there’s a lot to do to close the gap between what officials say and do when it comes to respecting minority rights.”

For more Human Rights Watch reporting on Iran, please visit:
http://www.hrw.org/en/middle-eastn-africa/iran

The regime in Iran is worried for another uprising !

IRAN WATCH CANADA:
Raising Iranian Society to an Informed and Able Society !
Change of political policy in Iran is based on the worries the authorities of the Islamic regime had and have from yet another unrest and uprising of Iranian people for democratic reform and changes in the coming future. Going through the websites and newspapers one can understand the authorities feeling . The acceptance of Change of political stage from radical ( Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's Government) to a softer and moderate approach ( Rohani) , speaking more on the issue of " sedition" and their leaders by Islamic officials, devaluation of national currency , inflation of more than 50% , sanctions, international isolation , the issue of political prisoners, the issue of drug dealers and drug addicts , unemployment of university graduates ,the increase in number of opposition and dissidents inside and outside Iran and so many other issues forced the regime to accept the changes . Although the political structure in Iran is almost the same from regime to regime for decades but the social & cultural structure of the society is slowly but gradually changing in Iranian society and this regime is unable to respond to the needs of the society ,instead regime is adding up to the problems of the people by pushing them aside in deciding or dealing over their own and their country's destiny. Although the radical and fundamentalist elements or forces of the Islamic regime did not win in the presidential election but they are actively present in the system and can create an atmosphere of fear and slap to the face of people who ask for radical changes,  . Islamic regime in Iran in its entirety is undemocratic and is the cause of most of the problems the Iranian people face . Focusing on nation building by upgrading the social and cultural issues of Iranian society is what we the Iranian need. Civil society ,student activists, intellectuals, film industry's , artists and all other organizations as a group or individual must help raise the Iranian society to an informed and able society.
      

Who is going to help relieves these mothers from the pain they are already in?

Ms. Zoleykha Musavi is the mother of imprisoned political prisoner and blogger Hosein Ronaghi. Hosein went to hunger strike since August 9 in protest against the prison authorities who won't allow him to be transferred to an outside hospital for his kidney treatment. Hosein is in ward 350 in Evin prison. Hosein's mom repeatedly asked authorities to allow her son for treatment but her request end up with no result and deaf ear to the authorities ,therefore she also decided to go on hunger strike since yesterday. Hosein Ronaghi is sentenced to 15 years imprisonment for his writings and critical views. Hosein has been in prison since 2009.
Link:
http://www.akhbar-rooz.com/article.jsp?essayId=54800

  

Roger Waters asks musicians to boycott Israel

By August Brown

August 20, 2013, 4:13 p.m.

Pink Floyd's Roger Waters has long been an outspoken critic of Israel's treatment of Palestinians. But his latest protest is close to his line of work -- he's asking musicians to boycott the country.

"I write to you now, my brothers and sisters in the family of Rock and Roll, to ask you to join with me, and thousands of other artists around the world, to declare a cultural boycott on Israel," he wrote, in an open letter posted to his Facebook page and the Palestinian activist website Electronic Intifada.
"Please join me and all our brothers and sisters in global civil society in proclaiming our rejection of Apartheid in Israel and occupied Palestine, by pledging not to perform or exhibit in Israel or accept any award or funding from any institution linked to the government of Israel, until such time as Israel complies with international law and universal principles of human rights."

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Waters has been a frequent advocate of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement regarding Israel, encouraging institutions to withdraw investments there, among other tactics. In the letter, he said he drew inspiration from British violinist Nigel Kennedy's criticism of Israel, the successful boycott of South Africa during apartheid, and Stevie Wonder's recent rejection of states with "Stand Your Ground" laws.
Elvis Costello and Annie Lennox are among the musicians who have expressed similar support for a musical boycott of Israel. But Waters recently caught criticism at a show in Belgium, where the famed Pink Floyd inflatable pig appeared with a star of David and images of repressive regimes.

Link:
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/music/posts/la-et-ms-roger-waters-musicians-boycott-israel-20130820,0,5366365.story

Public Execution just happened under Hassan Rohani's Government.....

1- News coming from Iran indicates of two public execution one in the city of Jahrom ( Name:Abdolhamid ,S ) and the other at " Ana Khatoon " district in the city of Tabriz ( Name: D. A ) .
This Savagery and Barbarity is happening at this time and age in the History of Iran , A country which  wrote the first human rights charter 2500 years ago ,instead of leading the world over human rights ,it create and shows Iran as a savage and barbaric country in the world.
And the Government deliberately orchestrate this shows in the streets of the  city' . People must look at the Government in their entirety like, what they think, what they say and what they do .
Link to the news on execution:
http://news.gooya.com/politics/archives/2013/08/165563.php


2- Last Sunday the Government cabinet Minister came together to a session and had began their work.
Yesterday Mr. Aliakbar Velayati the former minister of Foreign Affairs and current international affair adviser to Khamenei said that: On Very sensitive international issues like nuclear energy talks and relation with US,it is the leader who says the last word and not the government. This means the governments are just nothing but a puppet of Khamenei and Islamic regime in Iran.

3-  Mr. Alavi Minister of Information of the Islamic Regime in Iran said ,those activists who have left the country for fear during the uprising of 2009 ,if they haven't done any crime or offenses can return to the country and we guarantee they won't have any problem.

The Minister also spoke about the quality of the ministry and he said , we can export quality agents ......

Link:
http://news.gooya.com/politics/archives/2013/08/165560.php

4- It is happening under Rohani's administration:
The arrest and interrogation of a group of Bahai from a village in the city of Isfahan . The agents of the Ministry of Information together with officers from disciplinary forces entered into a house in a village called " Halab"- a district of Najaf Abad and arrested and detained three of the Bahai's :
Banafsheh Ferdosian
Afrouz Rohi
Masoud Vojdani

These Bahai's were taken to " Dastgerd prison" in Isfahan. Based on the latest news , Ms. Banafsheh Ferdosian is released on Bail but the others are still in prison. According to report,these Bahai's were getting together in the house to read their religious books and prayer.

Link:
http://news.gooya.com/politics/archives/2013/08/165548.ph

Sick Prisoner of Conscience Begins Hunger Strike

“I asked Mr. Khodabakhsh, ‘Do you want to kill my son?’
I told him what that official had told Hossein a few days ago,
that if he went on a hunger strike, nothing would happen,
he would die and a few days later, everything would be finished,
and I asked him, ‘Is this what you want to do?’
and he said, ‘Maybe,’” said Hossein Ronaghi Maleki’s mother.

Prisoner of conscience Hossein Ronaghi Maleki has been on a
hunger strike since Sunday, August 11, to protest the prison authorities’ lack of attention to his and other sick prisoners’ conditions, and to support Abolfazl Abedini, a prisoner on hunger strike since July 28. Ronaghi’s mother expressed concern about her son’s hunger strike and told the International Campaign for Human rights in Iran that a prison authority told Hossein Ronaghi, “Go on a hunger strike! What could happen? It will take a few days, and then you will die, and the whole thing will be over in a few days later.”




Zoleikha Mousavi told the Campaign that according to doctors, her son needs to be put on medical furlough. “I met with Hossein last Monday. He wasn’t feeling well. He said he had not slept for four nights because of pain in his right kidney. He said that if he doesn’t get a response he will go on a hunger strike. I begged him to please not do it, because it pains me so much. He said they don’t want to give him furlough. Today I learned that he has started a hunger strike. His father went to Tehran today to see what he can do,” she said.
Link:
http://www.iranhumanrights.org/2013/08/ronaghi_maleki/

Masoud Shafiei the lawyer of three American Mountain climber is interrogated again

Newly Elect President and the Iranian Lawyers who defend Human Rights in Iran ! 
Masoud Shafiei is the Iranian lawyer who have become the defense lawyer for three American Mountain Climber who were arrested and detained and were later freed and left the country .
A source close to International Campaign for Human rights in Iran said:    20 days ago Masoud Shafiei was interrogated again by agents of the Ministry of Information , his passport was confiscated and after 20 days the agents didn't return the passport.

Three days after the return of three American mountain climber to America on 2011 Mr. Masoud Shafiei the Iranian lawyer was arrested by agents of the Ministry of Information, he was interrogated and his house was searched and his passport was confiscated and he was banned from leaving the country.
This lawyer is threatened not to speak to media. He is having difficulty to find clients because of his case file and because the discrimination of judiciary system against critical lawyers. Lawyers critical to the judiciary system are eventually losing their daily function under Islamic regime.


 

CIA admits organising 1953 Iran coup

Recently declassified document details CIA's role in overthrow of elected Iranian Prime Minister Mossadegh in 1953.

60 Years have passed Since 1953 Coup and overthrow of National Democratic Government in Iran!

The CIA has admitted to orchestrating the August 1953 coup that toppled Iran's prime minister after he tried to nationalise his country's oil wealth from Britain, according to a declassified document.

George Washington University's National Security Archive, which obtained the documents under the Freedom of Information Act, a law that promotes government transparency, said that a secret internal history marked the most explicit CIA admission, on Sunday.

"The military coup that overthrew Mosadeq and his National Front cabinet was carried out under CIA direction as an act of US foreign policy," the document said, using an alternative spelling of Mossadegh.

The CIA's role in the overthrow of Mohammad Mossadegh has long been known, with the coup haunting relations between the United States and Iran six decades later.

Mossadegh had angered Britain by moving to take over the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, the predecessor of modern-day BP. The British believed that control of Iranian oil was vital to reviving their economy from the destruction of World War II.

The internal CIA history, released by the National Security Archive to mark the coup's 60th anniversary, offered a degree of understanding of Mossadegh's position and rejected Western media depictions of him as "a
madman" or "an emotional bundle of senility".

While recognising that the UK needed the oil, the CIA history said that British policymakers had "little in their experience to make them respect Iranians, whom company managers and Foreign Office managers saw as inefficient, corrupt and self-serving".

The CIA history also cast the decision in Cold War terms, fearing that the Soviets would invade and take over Iran if the crisis escalated and Britain sent in warships, as it would do three years later alongside France and
Israel when Egypt nationalised the Suez Canal.

"Then not only would Iran's oil have been irretrievably lost to the West, but the defense chain around the Soviet Union which was part of US foreign policy would have been breached," it said.

The coup strengthened the rule of the shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who became a close US ally. He was toppled in the 1979 Islamic revolution, with the new leadership making hostility to the United States a cornerstone of Iran's foreign policy.

Then Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, in an effort to mend relations with Iran, admitted in 2000 that the United States "played a significant role" in overthrowing Mossadegh and called the coup "a setback for Iran's political development".

President Barack Obama made a similar admission after taking office in 2009 in another unsuccessful attempt at reconciliation with Iran, which has sought an explicit apology.

Another internal history, authored by coup planner Donald Wilber and leaked to The New York Times in 2000, said that agents arranged stories against Mossadegh in the press, both in Iran and the United States, aimed at setting the stage for the coup.

US and British spies also tried to fan the flames against Mossadegh among the Iranian clergy, it said.

The history said that the CIA also arranged to pay $5 million within days of the coup to the new government of Fazlollah Zahedi, a general appointed to succeed Mossadegh.

Malcolm Byrne, deputy director of the National Security Archive, said that the CIA wrote the secret histories for internal use.

The histories "give people on the inside a sense of what happened and, presumably, give them a little context for whatever else they may be planning," he said.

Link:

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/americas/2013/08/201382062432443546.html

On the 60th anniversary of the 1953 military coup in Iran that overthrew the government of radical nationalist Mohammad Mossadegh, the US has declassified documents detailing how the CIA’s secret operation brought the country’s Shah back to power.

“American and British involvement in Mossadegh’s ouster has long been public knowledge, but today’s posting includes what is believed to be the CIA’s first formal acknowledgement that the agency helped to plan and execute the coup,” the US National Security Archive said. 

Monday’s publication under the US Freedom of Information Act came as something of a surprise, since most of the materials and records of the 1953 coup were believed to have been destroyed by the CIA, the Archive said. The CIA said at time that its “safes were too full.”

The newly-revealed documents declassify documents about CIA’s TPAJAX operation that sought regime change in Iran through the bribery of Iranian politicians, security and army high-ranking officials, and massive anti-Mossadegh propaganda that helped to instigate public revolt in 1953.

In April 1951 Iranians democratically elected the head of the National Front party, Dr. Mohammad Mossadegh, as prime minister. Mossadegh moved quickly to nationalize the assets in Iran of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (the forerunner of today’s BP) a step that brought his government into confrontation with Britain and the US.

Britain’s MI6 military intelligence then teamed up with the CIA and planned, elaborated and carried out a coup that ousted Mossadegh in August 1953 and returned Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi to power. 

The first attempted coup failed after Mossadegh got wind of the conspiracy, but American and British intelligence services in Iran then improvized a second stage of the coup, pulling pro-Shah forces together and organizing mass protests on August 19, 1953. These protests were immediately supported by army and police. Mossadegh’s house was destroyed after a prolonged assault by pro-coup forces, including several tanks.

Mossadegh was replaced with Iranian general Fazlollah Zahedi, who was handpicked by MI6 and the CIA. Mossaddegh was later sentenced to death, but the Shah never dared to carry out the sentence. Mossadegh died in his residence near Tehran in 1967.

The Shah’s pro-Western dictatorship continued for 27 years and ended with the Islamic Revolution of 1979, which paved the way for today’s Iran, where anti-American sentiments remain strong. The 1953 coup still casts a long shadow over Iranian-US relations. 

Link:

http://rt.com/usa/iran-coup-cia-operation-647/