NEWS))))))
Iranian authorities hanged 12 people in Tehran on Sunday, the state broadcasting corporation IRIB reported on its website. Tehran’s chief prosecutor Saeed Mortazavi announced that the 12 unnamed individuals were hanged earlier in the day. He said their charges included kidnapping and drug trafficking. Four other individuals were hanged in Tehran last week on similar charges, he added.
******
Iranian authorities hanged a man in public in the northern province of Mazandaran on Thursday, state media reported. The unnamed man was hanged in a public square in the city of Sari, the state broadcasting corporation IRIB said on its website. He was accused of rape. The report said that he had been detained by security forces during the ongoing crackdown on “hooliganism”.
******
Associated France Press reported that Iran on Monday launched a new wave of a moral crackdown against women who "dress like models" and men whose hairstyles are deemed un Islamic, police said. Tehran's police force dispatched dozens of police cars and minibuses into the early evening rush-hour to enforce the dress rules at major squares in the city centre, an AFP correspondent said. The new "plan to increase security in society" -- which is limited to Tehran but will later extend nationwide -- comes after a pre-summer drive by the police resulted in thousands of warnings and hundreds of arrests.
"We have vowed to continue the campaign to reinforce the plan to increase security in society with new personnel who have received the necessary training," the Tehran police head of information Mehdi Ahmadi told reporters as the first police forces were dispatched. "This notably includes the use of 100 female police officers," he added. He said that the campaign would target women who were badly veiled, wore overly tight overcoats, sported excessively short trousers and were "dressed like models." "As far as men are concerned we will act against those who have Western-style haircuts and clothing. We are also going to act against clothes shops and hairdressers." Ahmadi said the policy will be first to give a verbal warning to those who infringe the law and, if necessary, they will then be arrested and taken for "consultation." "Normally the problem is resolved here. If not, and these cases are often those of re-offenders, the case is sent to the judiciary," Ahmadi said. An AFP correspondent in Vanak Square in central Tehran saw women being apprehended and then being escorted towards a waiting minibus by female police officers. They then waited in the bus as the operation continued. Other women were seen quickly adjusting their headscarves to cover loose hair when they saw the officers. Women in Iran are obliged to cover all bodily contours and their heads, but in recent years many have pushed the boundaries by showing off bare ankles and fashionably styled hair beneath their headscarves. Although the April crackdown was the severest such drive in years, some women are still donning figure-hugging coats and skimpy headscarves. The wacky hairdos favored by some young men in Tehran are also much in evidence, AFP said.
******
Two earthquakes struck the province of Hormozgan, southern Iran, on Monday and Tuesday, state media reported. The first of the quakes measured 4.2 on the Richter scale, the official news agency IRNA reported on Tuesday. The government-owned news agency Fars said that the second quake which struck early on Tuesday was recorded at 4.9 on the Richter scale. There were no reports of damages.
Saturday, July 21, 2007
A man was hanged in public in the south-eastern province of Sistan-va-Baluchistan, state media reported. The man, identified as Naeim Moulai, was hanged on Wednesday in the city of Zabol, the semi-official daily Jomhouri Islami wrote on Thursday.He was accused of drug trafficking.
******
Authorities hanged a man in central Iran, state media reported on Monday.The unnamed man was hanged in the city of Arak, the official state daily Iran wrote.He was accused of murder.
******
Iranian authorities hanged a woman in public in the north-western province of East Azerbaijan, state media reported on Sunday.The unnamed woman was hanged in public in the provincial capital Tabriz, the daily Tehran-e Emrouz wrote. The report put her age at 29. She was accused of murder and conspiring to kill.Iranian authorities routinely execute dissidents on bogus charges such as armed robbery, drug smuggling, and murder.In May 2006, at least 100,000 Azeris rallied in Tabriz against the publication of an insulting cartoon in the official daily Iran. The city has since been prone to anti-government demonstrations and full-scale riots.
******
Iranian authorities hanged a man in public in the southern province of Fars, state media reported on Saturday.The man, identified as 22-year-old Navid Parham, was hanged in public in the provincial capital Shiraz, the semi-official daily Kayhan wrote.He was accused of murder and robbery.
******
Three men were hanged in public on Saturday, in the north-western Iranian province of East Azerbaijan, state media reported.The unnamed men were hanged in public in the provincial capital Tabriz, the government-owned news agency Fars said.They were accused of murder.
******
Canada called upon Iran on Tuesday to overturn death sentence of Sina Paymard. The Honorable Peter MacKay, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Minister of the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, made an urgent appeal today to Iranian authorities to overturn the death sentence of Sina Paymard. “Canada calls upon the Iranian government to stay the execution sentencegiven to Sina Paymard for a crime he was convicted of committing while aminor. “The Government of Iran must live up to its commitments and obligations under international law as well as its own domestic law. The Islamic Republic of Iran is a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Both of these international binding agreements clearly prohibit the execution of minors or people who have been convicted of crimes committed while they were minors. “The execution of minors is a subject of the utmost concern for Canada,and we urge Iranian authorities to commute the death sentence in this case.”
******
Reuters reported that Iran has stayed the execution of a teenage boy convicted of murder for 10 days, Iran's Students News Agency ISNA quoted his lawyer as saying on Wednesday.Sina Paymard, an 18-year-old boy convicted of killing a drug dealer at the age of 16, was scheduled to be executed on Tuesday, according to his lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh.Amnesty International had made an urgent appeal against the planned execution, saying that it would be violation of international law if carried out."The lawyer of Sina Paymard ... said her client's execution was stopped for the second time for 10 days," ISNA reported. Iran has one of the highest rates of execution in the world, according to Amnesty. Since the beginning of 2007, at least 124 people have been put to death.
******
According to Associated France Press a top Iranian official on Sunday defended the use of execution by stoning after a sentence was carried out on a man accused of adaultry, saying the punishment was legal and in line with Iran's rights commitments. Mohammad Javad Larijani, the head of the Iranian judiciary's human rights committee, said the judiciary supported the principle of stoning after confirmation last week of the execution sparked international condemnation. "Stoning is based on Islamic sharia law and it is not contrary to any of our international obligations," Larijani was quoted as saying by state television's website. "We have signed four important treaties on human rights. None of them has any opposition to stoning. "But since Westerners have their own interpretations of the articles and the contents of these documents, they oppose stoning," said Larijani, the brother of Iran's top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani. A stoning sentence involves members of the public hurling rocks at the convict who is buried up to his waist in the ground. Larijani, who also advises the judiciary on international affairs, stressed that the Iranian authorities took "meticulous" care before issuing any stoning verdict. Western human rights groups have said that other stonings have taken place in Iran since 2002, but the judiciary never confirmed these. Kiani was arrested 11 years ago while living with Mokarrameh Ebrahimi when both were reportedly married to others. Ebrahimi has also been sentenced to death by stoning, but the carrying out of her verdict has been halted.
******
Reuters reported: Iranian police will intensify a crackdown on women flouting Islamic dress code, a police official told a newspaper on Sunday, in the first reinforcement of regular summertime campaigns. Such crackdowns have become a regular feature of Iranian life, but it is the first time police have pledged to toughen up measures that began in April.A human rights group on Saturday criticized Iran for abuses like police crackdowns on violations of the Islamic dress code. It said some 488 men and women were detained during the first days of the crackdown."From Mordad (the Iranian month starting on July 23) police numbers will double to confront such immoral behaviour," the Farhang-e Ashti daily quoted Tehran police Chief Ahmad Reza Radan as saying.Under Islamic sharia law, imposed after Iran's 1979 revolution, women are obliged to cover their hair and wear long, loose-fitting clothes to disguise their figures and protect their modesty. Violators can receive lashes, fines or imprisonment.Many young women, particularly in wealthier urban areas, challenge the limitations by wearing calf-length Capri pants, tight-fitting, thigh-length coats in bright colors and scarves pushed back to expose plenty of hair.The Islamic dress code is less commonly challenged in poor suburbs and rural areas.Radan said those women who resisted the guidance of police would appear before the courts. "First, those who breach the dress code will be warned by the police ... But if they continue their ignorance ... they will be sent to courts," the police chief said.Iran has repeatedly rejected criticism by rights groups over such crackdowns, saying the country's efforts were aimed at "fighting morally corrupt people”.
******
Authorities hanged a man in central Iran, state media reported on Monday.The unnamed man was hanged in the city of Arak, the official state daily Iran wrote.He was accused of murder.
******
Iranian authorities hanged a woman in public in the north-western province of East Azerbaijan, state media reported on Sunday.The unnamed woman was hanged in public in the provincial capital Tabriz, the daily Tehran-e Emrouz wrote. The report put her age at 29. She was accused of murder and conspiring to kill.Iranian authorities routinely execute dissidents on bogus charges such as armed robbery, drug smuggling, and murder.In May 2006, at least 100,000 Azeris rallied in Tabriz against the publication of an insulting cartoon in the official daily Iran. The city has since been prone to anti-government demonstrations and full-scale riots.
******
Iranian authorities hanged a man in public in the southern province of Fars, state media reported on Saturday.The man, identified as 22-year-old Navid Parham, was hanged in public in the provincial capital Shiraz, the semi-official daily Kayhan wrote.He was accused of murder and robbery.
******
Three men were hanged in public on Saturday, in the north-western Iranian province of East Azerbaijan, state media reported.The unnamed men were hanged in public in the provincial capital Tabriz, the government-owned news agency Fars said.They were accused of murder.
******
Canada called upon Iran on Tuesday to overturn death sentence of Sina Paymard. The Honorable Peter MacKay, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Minister of the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, made an urgent appeal today to Iranian authorities to overturn the death sentence of Sina Paymard. “Canada calls upon the Iranian government to stay the execution sentencegiven to Sina Paymard for a crime he was convicted of committing while aminor. “The Government of Iran must live up to its commitments and obligations under international law as well as its own domestic law. The Islamic Republic of Iran is a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Both of these international binding agreements clearly prohibit the execution of minors or people who have been convicted of crimes committed while they were minors. “The execution of minors is a subject of the utmost concern for Canada,and we urge Iranian authorities to commute the death sentence in this case.”
******
Reuters reported that Iran has stayed the execution of a teenage boy convicted of murder for 10 days, Iran's Students News Agency ISNA quoted his lawyer as saying on Wednesday.Sina Paymard, an 18-year-old boy convicted of killing a drug dealer at the age of 16, was scheduled to be executed on Tuesday, according to his lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh.Amnesty International had made an urgent appeal against the planned execution, saying that it would be violation of international law if carried out."The lawyer of Sina Paymard ... said her client's execution was stopped for the second time for 10 days," ISNA reported. Iran has one of the highest rates of execution in the world, according to Amnesty. Since the beginning of 2007, at least 124 people have been put to death.
******
According to Associated France Press a top Iranian official on Sunday defended the use of execution by stoning after a sentence was carried out on a man accused of adaultry, saying the punishment was legal and in line with Iran's rights commitments. Mohammad Javad Larijani, the head of the Iranian judiciary's human rights committee, said the judiciary supported the principle of stoning after confirmation last week of the execution sparked international condemnation. "Stoning is based on Islamic sharia law and it is not contrary to any of our international obligations," Larijani was quoted as saying by state television's website. "We have signed four important treaties on human rights. None of them has any opposition to stoning. "But since Westerners have their own interpretations of the articles and the contents of these documents, they oppose stoning," said Larijani, the brother of Iran's top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani. A stoning sentence involves members of the public hurling rocks at the convict who is buried up to his waist in the ground. Larijani, who also advises the judiciary on international affairs, stressed that the Iranian authorities took "meticulous" care before issuing any stoning verdict. Western human rights groups have said that other stonings have taken place in Iran since 2002, but the judiciary never confirmed these. Kiani was arrested 11 years ago while living with Mokarrameh Ebrahimi when both were reportedly married to others. Ebrahimi has also been sentenced to death by stoning, but the carrying out of her verdict has been halted.
******
Reuters reported: Iranian police will intensify a crackdown on women flouting Islamic dress code, a police official told a newspaper on Sunday, in the first reinforcement of regular summertime campaigns. Such crackdowns have become a regular feature of Iranian life, but it is the first time police have pledged to toughen up measures that began in April.A human rights group on Saturday criticized Iran for abuses like police crackdowns on violations of the Islamic dress code. It said some 488 men and women were detained during the first days of the crackdown."From Mordad (the Iranian month starting on July 23) police numbers will double to confront such immoral behaviour," the Farhang-e Ashti daily quoted Tehran police Chief Ahmad Reza Radan as saying.Under Islamic sharia law, imposed after Iran's 1979 revolution, women are obliged to cover their hair and wear long, loose-fitting clothes to disguise their figures and protect their modesty. Violators can receive lashes, fines or imprisonment.Many young women, particularly in wealthier urban areas, challenge the limitations by wearing calf-length Capri pants, tight-fitting, thigh-length coats in bright colors and scarves pushed back to expose plenty of hair.The Islamic dress code is less commonly challenged in poor suburbs and rural areas.Radan said those women who resisted the guidance of police would appear before the courts. "First, those who breach the dress code will be warned by the police ... But if they continue their ignorance ... they will be sent to courts," the police chief said.Iran has repeatedly rejected criticism by rights groups over such crackdowns, saying the country's efforts were aimed at "fighting morally corrupt people”.
Sunday, July 15, 2007
NEWS)))))
The New York times reported on Wednesday that the Iranian government confirmed Tuesday that a man was executed by stoning last week for committing adultery, and said that 20 more men would be executed in the coming days on morality violations. A judiciary spokesman, Alireza Jamshidi, told reporters on Tuesday that a death sentence by stoning had been carried out last week near the city of Takestan, west of Tehran, despite an order by the chief of the judiciary, Ayatollah Mahmoud Shahroudi, not to permit such executions. “The verdict was final, and so it was carried out for the man but not for the woman,” the ISNA news agency quoted Mr. Jamshidi as saying. He said the 20 additional executions were for such things as “rape, insulting religious sanctities and laws, and homosexuality.” Most executions in Iran are hangings, often in public and at the scenes of the alleged crimes. The police arrested about 1,000 people in May during a so-called morality crackdown. Mr. Jamshidi said 15 more men were being tried on similar charges and could receive death sentences. The daily newspaper Etemad Melli reported Monday that Jaffar Kiani, 47, who had been convicted of adultery, was executed by stoning on Thursday in the cemetery of a small village near Takestan. “Villagers said the sentence was carried out by the local judge and authorities,” the newspaper reported. Mr. Kiani and his partner, Mokarameh Ebrahimi, 43, who has two children, were scheduled to die on June 21, but the execution was put off by Ayatollah Shahroudi.
Under the punishment of stoning, a male convict is buried up to his waist with his hands tied behind his back, while a female offender is buried up to her neck with her hands also buried. The spectators who are the regime’s officials attending the public execution start throwing stones and rocks at the convict, who is theoretically released if he is able to free himself.
******
The United Press International reported that Sweden Wednesday protested against the stoning to the death of an Iranian national for alleged adultery, the Swedish Foreign Ministry said. The Iranian ambassador to Stockholm was summoned to the foreign ministry where State Secretary for Foreign Affairs Frank Belfrage conveyed a protest over the stoning of Jafar Keyiani last Thursday in the town of Takestan, north-western Iran, the ministry said. The statement said that Portugal, current holder of the European Union presidency, had protested against the execution to Iranian officials in Tehran. Belfrage reiterated Sweden's opposition to the death penalty and underlined that the EU presidency had urged Iran to spare the life of Mokarrameh Ebrahimi, a mother of three, who was Keyiani's alleged partner and who also risks stoning.
The stoning brings to at least 110 the number of executions carried out in the Islamic republic so far this year. At least 177 people were executed in 2006, according to Amnesty International. Capital offences in Iran include murder, rape, armed robbery, apostasy, blasphemy, serious drug trafficking, repeated sodomy, adultery or prostitution, treason and espionage.
******
Norway summoned the Iranian ambassador in Oslo on Tuesday to protest against the "barbaric" stoning to death of a man convicted of adultery in northwestern Iran, Associated France Press reported on Tuesday."I am outraged that the stoning has been carried out and condemn in the strongest possible terms this death sentence," Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere said in a statement. "It is a fundamentally inhumane and barbaric punishment." The summons follows Tuesday's confirmation by Iranian authorities that Jafar Kiani had "recently" been executed in the village of Aghche Kand near Takestan, in Qazvin province. It was the first time in five years that Iran has confirmed a stoning to death took place. At Tuesday's meeting, Iranian ambassador Abdol Reza Faraji Rad told Norwegian foreign affairs state secretary Liv Monica Stubholt that the sentence of Kiani's co-accused, Mokarrameh Ebrahimi, who is also facing death by stoning, would not be carried out. "He told us that the Iranian judiciary said to him that the sentence of the woman would not be carried out," ministry spokesman Frode Overland Andersen told AFP. "When we asked him whether he meant the sentence would be postponed or that it would be stopped, he could not confirm." Rights activists seeking to stop the practice said Kiani had been arrested 11 years ago while living with Ebrahimi. Both were reportedly married to others at the time. Ebrahimi is still awaiting her sentence in prison in Qazvin city, where she is detained with her two children. "Norway will work with other countries to strongly invite the Iranian authorities to prevent the stoning (of Ebrahimi) from being carried out," Gahr Stoere said Tuesday.
******
A man was hanged in public in the southern Iranian city of Shiraz.The man identified as 22-year-old Navid Parham was hanged in a Shiraz street, the government-owned news agency Fars reported on Monday. He was accused of murder.
******
Three men were hanged in public on Saturday, in the north-western Iranian province of East Azerbaijan, state media reported.The unnamed men were hanged in public in the provincial capital Tabriz, the government-owned news agency Fars said. They were accused of murder.
******
The international human rights organization Amnesty International announced on Friday that human rights violations were continuing “unabated” in Iran.In an announcement posted on its website, Amnesty said it was “greatly concerned” by “continuing human rights violations in Iran, including new arrests of human rights defenders and the high rate of executions”.Sixteen people were arrested on 9 July -- 18 Tir in the Iranian calendar -- the eighth anniversary of student demonstrations in 1999 which were violently suppressed by security forces, Amnesty said. It added that trade unionists were also being targeted.“Women's rights activists also continue to face reprisals for their activities demanding an end to laws which discriminate against women. At least three more women have recently been sentenced for participating in a June 2006 demonstration calling for reform of Iran's discriminatory legislation”. “Iran continues to have one of the highest rates of executions in the world. Amnesty International has recorded at least 120 executions since the beginning of 2007, suggesting that by the end of this year the total number of executions could exceed the total of 177 executions that Amnesty International recorded in 2006. “Two recent victims of the Iranian authorities' use of the death penalty were child offenders, whose alleged crimes were committed before the age of 18, and a third was a man who was stoned to death. The two child offenders -- Mohammad Mousavi and Sa'id Qanbar Zahi -- were executed in April and May respectively, in direct contravention of international law, which requires that no-one should be executed for crimes committed while under the age of 18”, it added.
******
The International Transport Workers' Federation has appealed for the release of an Iranian union leader who reportedly was kidnapped earlier this week in Tehran. Associated Press reported on Thursday that Mansour Osanloo, leader of a bus workers union, "is still in custody somewhere by agents unknown," federation spokesman Sam Dawson said Thursday. The Associated Press was unable to contact any member of his family in Tehran for information on the case. Osanloo, 47, president of the Sandikaye Kargarane Sherkate Vahed (Syndicate of Workers of Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company), was accosted by several men as he stepped off a bus Tuesday evening, the federation said, quoting information from its Iranian affiliate. "Given the past history of Osanloo's treatment by the security forces there is strong reason to believe that some part of the Iranian authorities was responsible for this attack, but the local police station, to which his family turned, refused to confirm or deny that the police were involved," the federation said in a statement. "We demand an immediate and unconditional release of Mansour Osanloo," said David Cockroft, the federation's general secretary. "ITF affiliates and the global trade union leaders who met him at the recent ITUC General Council meeting in Brussels, and the International Labor Organization will all protest against this blatant violation of human and trade union rights and will take whatever action is necessary to secure the immediate release of Mansour Osanloo." The federation said Osanloo was released in August last year after seven months in detention. He was arrested again on Nov. 19 and released a month later, and was briefly detained on May 1 this year, the federation said. Amnesty International said Osanloo was released in August after posting bail equivalent to $163,000 while awaiting trial on unknown charges.
******
Sky News reported on Tuesday that police in Iran are reported to have taken 14 squirrels into custody - because they are suspected of spying. The rodents were found near the Iranian border allegedly equipped with eavesdropping devices. The reports have come from the official Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA). When asked about the confiscation of the spy squirrels, the national police chief said: "I have heard about it, but I do not have precise information."The IRNA said that the squirrels were kitted out by foreign intelligence services - but they were captured two weeks ago by police officers.A Foreign Office source told Sky News: "The story is nuts."
The New York times reported on Wednesday that the Iranian government confirmed Tuesday that a man was executed by stoning last week for committing adultery, and said that 20 more men would be executed in the coming days on morality violations. A judiciary spokesman, Alireza Jamshidi, told reporters on Tuesday that a death sentence by stoning had been carried out last week near the city of Takestan, west of Tehran, despite an order by the chief of the judiciary, Ayatollah Mahmoud Shahroudi, not to permit such executions. “The verdict was final, and so it was carried out for the man but not for the woman,” the ISNA news agency quoted Mr. Jamshidi as saying. He said the 20 additional executions were for such things as “rape, insulting religious sanctities and laws, and homosexuality.” Most executions in Iran are hangings, often in public and at the scenes of the alleged crimes. The police arrested about 1,000 people in May during a so-called morality crackdown. Mr. Jamshidi said 15 more men were being tried on similar charges and could receive death sentences. The daily newspaper Etemad Melli reported Monday that Jaffar Kiani, 47, who had been convicted of adultery, was executed by stoning on Thursday in the cemetery of a small village near Takestan. “Villagers said the sentence was carried out by the local judge and authorities,” the newspaper reported. Mr. Kiani and his partner, Mokarameh Ebrahimi, 43, who has two children, were scheduled to die on June 21, but the execution was put off by Ayatollah Shahroudi.
Under the punishment of stoning, a male convict is buried up to his waist with his hands tied behind his back, while a female offender is buried up to her neck with her hands also buried. The spectators who are the regime’s officials attending the public execution start throwing stones and rocks at the convict, who is theoretically released if he is able to free himself.
******
The United Press International reported that Sweden Wednesday protested against the stoning to the death of an Iranian national for alleged adultery, the Swedish Foreign Ministry said. The Iranian ambassador to Stockholm was summoned to the foreign ministry where State Secretary for Foreign Affairs Frank Belfrage conveyed a protest over the stoning of Jafar Keyiani last Thursday in the town of Takestan, north-western Iran, the ministry said. The statement said that Portugal, current holder of the European Union presidency, had protested against the execution to Iranian officials in Tehran. Belfrage reiterated Sweden's opposition to the death penalty and underlined that the EU presidency had urged Iran to spare the life of Mokarrameh Ebrahimi, a mother of three, who was Keyiani's alleged partner and who also risks stoning.
The stoning brings to at least 110 the number of executions carried out in the Islamic republic so far this year. At least 177 people were executed in 2006, according to Amnesty International. Capital offences in Iran include murder, rape, armed robbery, apostasy, blasphemy, serious drug trafficking, repeated sodomy, adultery or prostitution, treason and espionage.
******
Norway summoned the Iranian ambassador in Oslo on Tuesday to protest against the "barbaric" stoning to death of a man convicted of adultery in northwestern Iran, Associated France Press reported on Tuesday."I am outraged that the stoning has been carried out and condemn in the strongest possible terms this death sentence," Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere said in a statement. "It is a fundamentally inhumane and barbaric punishment." The summons follows Tuesday's confirmation by Iranian authorities that Jafar Kiani had "recently" been executed in the village of Aghche Kand near Takestan, in Qazvin province. It was the first time in five years that Iran has confirmed a stoning to death took place. At Tuesday's meeting, Iranian ambassador Abdol Reza Faraji Rad told Norwegian foreign affairs state secretary Liv Monica Stubholt that the sentence of Kiani's co-accused, Mokarrameh Ebrahimi, who is also facing death by stoning, would not be carried out. "He told us that the Iranian judiciary said to him that the sentence of the woman would not be carried out," ministry spokesman Frode Overland Andersen told AFP. "When we asked him whether he meant the sentence would be postponed or that it would be stopped, he could not confirm." Rights activists seeking to stop the practice said Kiani had been arrested 11 years ago while living with Ebrahimi. Both were reportedly married to others at the time. Ebrahimi is still awaiting her sentence in prison in Qazvin city, where she is detained with her two children. "Norway will work with other countries to strongly invite the Iranian authorities to prevent the stoning (of Ebrahimi) from being carried out," Gahr Stoere said Tuesday.
******
A man was hanged in public in the southern Iranian city of Shiraz.The man identified as 22-year-old Navid Parham was hanged in a Shiraz street, the government-owned news agency Fars reported on Monday. He was accused of murder.
******
Three men were hanged in public on Saturday, in the north-western Iranian province of East Azerbaijan, state media reported.The unnamed men were hanged in public in the provincial capital Tabriz, the government-owned news agency Fars said. They were accused of murder.
******
The international human rights organization Amnesty International announced on Friday that human rights violations were continuing “unabated” in Iran.In an announcement posted on its website, Amnesty said it was “greatly concerned” by “continuing human rights violations in Iran, including new arrests of human rights defenders and the high rate of executions”.Sixteen people were arrested on 9 July -- 18 Tir in the Iranian calendar -- the eighth anniversary of student demonstrations in 1999 which were violently suppressed by security forces, Amnesty said. It added that trade unionists were also being targeted.“Women's rights activists also continue to face reprisals for their activities demanding an end to laws which discriminate against women. At least three more women have recently been sentenced for participating in a June 2006 demonstration calling for reform of Iran's discriminatory legislation”. “Iran continues to have one of the highest rates of executions in the world. Amnesty International has recorded at least 120 executions since the beginning of 2007, suggesting that by the end of this year the total number of executions could exceed the total of 177 executions that Amnesty International recorded in 2006. “Two recent victims of the Iranian authorities' use of the death penalty were child offenders, whose alleged crimes were committed before the age of 18, and a third was a man who was stoned to death. The two child offenders -- Mohammad Mousavi and Sa'id Qanbar Zahi -- were executed in April and May respectively, in direct contravention of international law, which requires that no-one should be executed for crimes committed while under the age of 18”, it added.
******
The International Transport Workers' Federation has appealed for the release of an Iranian union leader who reportedly was kidnapped earlier this week in Tehran. Associated Press reported on Thursday that Mansour Osanloo, leader of a bus workers union, "is still in custody somewhere by agents unknown," federation spokesman Sam Dawson said Thursday. The Associated Press was unable to contact any member of his family in Tehran for information on the case. Osanloo, 47, president of the Sandikaye Kargarane Sherkate Vahed (Syndicate of Workers of Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company), was accosted by several men as he stepped off a bus Tuesday evening, the federation said, quoting information from its Iranian affiliate. "Given the past history of Osanloo's treatment by the security forces there is strong reason to believe that some part of the Iranian authorities was responsible for this attack, but the local police station, to which his family turned, refused to confirm or deny that the police were involved," the federation said in a statement. "We demand an immediate and unconditional release of Mansour Osanloo," said David Cockroft, the federation's general secretary. "ITF affiliates and the global trade union leaders who met him at the recent ITUC General Council meeting in Brussels, and the International Labor Organization will all protest against this blatant violation of human and trade union rights and will take whatever action is necessary to secure the immediate release of Mansour Osanloo." The federation said Osanloo was released in August last year after seven months in detention. He was arrested again on Nov. 19 and released a month later, and was briefly detained on May 1 this year, the federation said. Amnesty International said Osanloo was released in August after posting bail equivalent to $163,000 while awaiting trial on unknown charges.
******
Sky News reported on Tuesday that police in Iran are reported to have taken 14 squirrels into custody - because they are suspected of spying. The rodents were found near the Iranian border allegedly equipped with eavesdropping devices. The reports have come from the official Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA). When asked about the confiscation of the spy squirrels, the national police chief said: "I have heard about it, but I do not have precise information."The IRNA said that the squirrels were kitted out by foreign intelligence services - but they were captured two weeks ago by police officers.A Foreign Office source told Sky News: "The story is nuts."
Sunday, July 08, 2007
NEWS)))))
The Associated Press reported that authorities have arrested some 80 suspects on the charge of damaging gas stations and looting shops during last week's protests against fuel rationing, state-run television reported Wednesday. The report was the first confirmation that people were arrested for protesting the new fuel rationing measures. Announced last Wednesday, the government's rationing drove angry Iranians to set fire to more than a dozen gas stations in the capital, Tehran, and several other cities. Iran is one of the world's biggest oil producers but has only nine refineries and must import more than 50 percent of the gasoline used by consumers. The rationing system allows private drivers only 26 gallons of fuel per month at the subsidized price. Taxis get 211 gallons a month. Anything more than that will have to be bought at a higher price, which officials say will be announced within the next two months.
The Iranian regime wants the people who were arrested for the protest to be executed and some of them will be introduced to public on Monday. The prisoners are in Evin notorious prison and a few are in solitary confinement.
******
Reuters reported: Activists should not try to change Islamic laws relating to women's rights, Iran's supreme leader said on Wednesday, two days after one campaigner was reportedly sentenced to 34 months in jail and ten lashes.Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was addressing a group of women, most dressed conservatively in head-to-toe black chadors, in Tehran.
Reuters added: Campaigners say Iranian women face difficulties in getting a divorce and criticize inheritance laws they say are unjust and the fact their court testimony is worth half that of a man's. "We are witnessing in our country that some women activists and some men are trying to play with Islamic laws ... in order to harmonize them with international conventions related to women," Khamenei said. "This is wrong.""They shouldn't see the solution in changing Islamic jurisprudence laws," Khamenei, Iran's highest authority, was quoted as saying. Although Women are legally entitled to hold most jobs in Iran, it remains a male-dominated society. They cannot run for president or become judges.
******
Iran’s judiciary has sentenced a women’s right activist to lashes and prison time for taking part in an anti-government protest last year, state media reported on Tuesday. Delaram Ali, who had taken part in a demonstration in Tehran on 12 June 2006 demanding greater women’s rights, was sentenced to 10 lashes and given a 2-year-and-20-month suspended prison term sentence.The announcement was made by Nasrin Sotoudeh, Delaram’s lawyer.
Delaram had been charged with “participating in an illegal gathering”, carrying out “propaganda activities against the state”, and “disturbing public order”.
******
According to International news agencies, tens of thousands of Iranians converged on a Paris exhibition centre on Saturday in support of the main Iranian opposition group, and to denounce EU action against the group.“Justice, justice, rule of law; EU, EU, shame on you”, chanted protestors at an indoor arena in Villepinte, north of Paris. They were referring to the EU’s decision to impose a ban on the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI) despite a ruling last December by the European Court of First Instance annulling the group’s terrorist designation. The PMOI is a member group of the main opposition coalition National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI).Several dozen Parliamentarians from Europe, the US, Canada and the Middle East took part in the rally.The keynote speaker was NCRI President-elect Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, whose speech was repeatedly interrupted by jubilant cheers.Rajavi accused the EU of “appeasing” the “mullahs’ regime” by declaring the PMOI, terrorist.“We in the European Parliament have fought very hard to convince the EU leadership that the correct policy towards Iran is not these useless negotiations and engagement. If the West is afraid of another war in the region, appeasing this regime is not the solution”, said Alejo Vidal-Quadras, Vice-President of the European Parliament one of the speakers at the rally. Organizers estimated participants to number 50,000.During her speech, Rajavi touched on the NCRI’s plan for a future Iran. “We shall build a new Iran, a free society and an advanced nation. We shall make execution and torture a thing of the past. We shall abolish the death penalty. We shall dissolve reactionary courts and medieval punishments. We shall bring to an end the era of inquisition, compulsory veiling and meddling in the private lives of the citizenry”, she said.
******
An earthquake measuring 5.1 on the Richter scale shook parts of central Iran on Wednesday, state media reported.The quake jolted the vicinity of Behabad in Yazd Province, the official news agency IRNA said.
The Associated Press reported that authorities have arrested some 80 suspects on the charge of damaging gas stations and looting shops during last week's protests against fuel rationing, state-run television reported Wednesday. The report was the first confirmation that people were arrested for protesting the new fuel rationing measures. Announced last Wednesday, the government's rationing drove angry Iranians to set fire to more than a dozen gas stations in the capital, Tehran, and several other cities. Iran is one of the world's biggest oil producers but has only nine refineries and must import more than 50 percent of the gasoline used by consumers. The rationing system allows private drivers only 26 gallons of fuel per month at the subsidized price. Taxis get 211 gallons a month. Anything more than that will have to be bought at a higher price, which officials say will be announced within the next two months.
The Iranian regime wants the people who were arrested for the protest to be executed and some of them will be introduced to public on Monday. The prisoners are in Evin notorious prison and a few are in solitary confinement.
******
Reuters reported: Activists should not try to change Islamic laws relating to women's rights, Iran's supreme leader said on Wednesday, two days after one campaigner was reportedly sentenced to 34 months in jail and ten lashes.Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was addressing a group of women, most dressed conservatively in head-to-toe black chadors, in Tehran.
Reuters added: Campaigners say Iranian women face difficulties in getting a divorce and criticize inheritance laws they say are unjust and the fact their court testimony is worth half that of a man's. "We are witnessing in our country that some women activists and some men are trying to play with Islamic laws ... in order to harmonize them with international conventions related to women," Khamenei said. "This is wrong.""They shouldn't see the solution in changing Islamic jurisprudence laws," Khamenei, Iran's highest authority, was quoted as saying. Although Women are legally entitled to hold most jobs in Iran, it remains a male-dominated society. They cannot run for president or become judges.
******
Iran’s judiciary has sentenced a women’s right activist to lashes and prison time for taking part in an anti-government protest last year, state media reported on Tuesday. Delaram Ali, who had taken part in a demonstration in Tehran on 12 June 2006 demanding greater women’s rights, was sentenced to 10 lashes and given a 2-year-and-20-month suspended prison term sentence.The announcement was made by Nasrin Sotoudeh, Delaram’s lawyer.
Delaram had been charged with “participating in an illegal gathering”, carrying out “propaganda activities against the state”, and “disturbing public order”.
******
According to International news agencies, tens of thousands of Iranians converged on a Paris exhibition centre on Saturday in support of the main Iranian opposition group, and to denounce EU action against the group.“Justice, justice, rule of law; EU, EU, shame on you”, chanted protestors at an indoor arena in Villepinte, north of Paris. They were referring to the EU’s decision to impose a ban on the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI) despite a ruling last December by the European Court of First Instance annulling the group’s terrorist designation. The PMOI is a member group of the main opposition coalition National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI).Several dozen Parliamentarians from Europe, the US, Canada and the Middle East took part in the rally.The keynote speaker was NCRI President-elect Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, whose speech was repeatedly interrupted by jubilant cheers.Rajavi accused the EU of “appeasing” the “mullahs’ regime” by declaring the PMOI, terrorist.“We in the European Parliament have fought very hard to convince the EU leadership that the correct policy towards Iran is not these useless negotiations and engagement. If the West is afraid of another war in the region, appeasing this regime is not the solution”, said Alejo Vidal-Quadras, Vice-President of the European Parliament one of the speakers at the rally. Organizers estimated participants to number 50,000.During her speech, Rajavi touched on the NCRI’s plan for a future Iran. “We shall build a new Iran, a free society and an advanced nation. We shall make execution and torture a thing of the past. We shall abolish the death penalty. We shall dissolve reactionary courts and medieval punishments. We shall bring to an end the era of inquisition, compulsory veiling and meddling in the private lives of the citizenry”, she said.
******
An earthquake measuring 5.1 on the Richter scale shook parts of central Iran on Wednesday, state media reported.The quake jolted the vicinity of Behabad in Yazd Province, the official news agency IRNA said.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)