NEWS))))))
Iranian authorities hanged a man in public in the southern province of Fars, state media reported on Wednesday.The man, identified as Qoliollah Q., was hanged in public on Wednesday in the provincial capital Shiraz, the official news agency IRNA said.He was accused of murder.
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French news agency reported that Iran on Tuesday hanged two convicted drug smugglers in prison in the city of Zahedan, the provincial capital of the southeastern Sistan-Baluchestan province, state broadcasting said.The hangings bring to at least 166 the number of executions carried out in Iran so far this year, most of them by hanging and often in public.At least 177 people were executed in 2006, according to Amnesty International, making Iran the most prolific applier of the death penalty in the world after China.
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According to reports, the two Iranian Kurdish reporters who have been in the Iranian regime’s torture chambers for 37 days have gone on hunger strike and are under critical physical conditions. Adnan Hassanpour and Abdulvahed Boutimar(a.k.a. Haiva) have been arrested on charges of activities against national security, and hence, sentenced to death by execution. According to their lawyers, their physical situation is critical, but the jailors refrain from transferring them to the hospital and medical cares.National Council of Resistance of Iran, in a statement on Aug. 1, 2007, called on all international human rights’ organizations to take immediate measures to prevent their execution.
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The Observer reported on Sunday that 'Iran has hanged up to 30 people in the past month' and 'many executions have been carried out in public in an apparent bid to create a climate of intimidation while sending out uncompromising signals to the West.'Opposition sources say at least three of the dead were political activists, contradicting government insistence that it is targeting ’thugs’ and dangerous criminals.', the British weekly added.The Observer reported that 'the most high-profile recent executions involved Majid Kavousifar, 28, and his nephew, Hossein Kavousifar, 24, hanged for the murder of a hardline judge, Hassan Moghaddas, a man notorious for jailing political dissidents. They were hanged from cranes and hoisted high above one of Tehran’s busiest thoroughfares.
'The spectacle, the first public executions in Tehran for five years, took place outside the judiciary department headquarters where Moghaddas was murdered. But the location, near many office blocks and the Australian and Japanese embassies, meant they were seen by many middle-class Iranians who would not normally witness such events.'The previous day seven men were publicly executed in the north-eastern city of Masshad, including five said to be guilty of ’rape, kidnapping, theft and committing indecent acts’. Another two were hanged separately for raping and robbing a young woman. The executions were also shown live on state television.'Public hangings are normally carried out sparingly in Iran and reserved for cases that have provoked public outrage, such as serial murders or child killings. Human rights organisations say the rising death toll has brought the number of prisoners executed this year to about 150, compared to 177 in 2006, a dramatic increase in capital punishment since the country’s radical President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, took office two years ago.'The executions come after the government launched a campaign targeting murderers, sex offenders, drug traffickers and others cast as a threat to ’social security’. It resulted in a wave of arrests after police raided working-class neighbourhoods in Tehran and other cities. Those arrested were paraded in public, often in humiliating poses.'The government has also sought to publicise executions conducted behind closed doors. Last month state television broadcast footage of 12 condemned men as they were about to be hanged in Tehran’s Evin prison. The Observer added that 'the spate of executions seems likely to continue. Tehran’s hardline chief prosecutor, Saeed Mortazavi, has announced that he is seeking the death penalty against 17 ’hooligans’.'
Saturday, August 18, 2007
NEWS))))))
A man was hanged in public in the northern Iranian province of Gilan on Thursday, state media reported.The unnamed man was hanged in the town of Astaneh Ashrafiyeh, the state broadcasting corporation IRIB said in a report on its website.He was accused of murder.
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Two men were hanged in the north-eastern province of Khorassan Razavi, state media reported.The men, identified only by their initials M. T. and M. R., were hanged in a prison in the town of Taybad, the state-run news agency ISNA said on Tuesday.They were accused of drug smuggling. The report did not specify the date when the execution took place.
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Iranian authorities in Tehran lashed a man on his back earlier this year for having a bible in his car, an Iranian Christian group said in a report on its website last Friday. The man was only identified by the initials A. Sh.On 5 May, the man, driving his vehicle, was involved in a road accident with a car belonging to security guards for a government official in Tehran. A bible and a video of Jesus Christ were found in the man's possession upon inspection of his vehicle by the state security forces (SSF). A. Sh. admitted to being Christian, prompting the security agents to beat him up, the report said. He was arrested and taken to a holding cell in Detention Centre 102. During interrogation security agents accused the man of converting from Islam to Christianity, a practice banned under Iran's strict theocratic laws.He was subsequently subjected to lashes on the back and underwent physical and psychological torture, the report added.He was released two days later after his family made bail.
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Iranian Regime Called For Cross-Country Maneuver in Fear of Uprising
State run news agency Fars, reported on Aug. 7, deputy leader of paramilitary force of Basij, Pasdar (member of IRGC) Majid Mir-Ahmadi said: “Based on our evaluation of threats from our enemy, and in order to confront it, defense readiness of members of Basij is our first priority.” He added: “most of the battalions participating in the maneuver are equipped with modern and appropriate weaponry and the maneuver will be held under real conditions.”
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The Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran said in a statement on Monday that the State Security Forces (SSF) opened fire on a car at the entry point to the city of Baneh in the Iranian Kurdistan on Sunday, killing three and wounding another one seriously. Outraged by the heinous crime, the local residents took to the streets in protest and clashed with the suppressive forces. The SSF attacked the angry crowd wounding a number of local residents and arresting many others. In defiance, the demonstrators torched the SSF station. Fearing the spread of protest the regime called in reinforcements from nearby towns. The clashes and unrest continued until late evening.
******
Upon calls by Amnesty International, the Confederation of International Unions and the International Federation of World Transportation, a series of rallies were staged in Paris and other European cities against the suppression of worker activists in Iran by the mullahs’ regime. The demonstrators carried placards saying: ' Syndicate Freedoms for Iranian Employees and Workers', and ' Stop Massacre', ' Release Workers and Students', and chanted slogans against the recent wave of suppression in Iran.
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A prominent international media rights group called on the United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to take action to save two Iranian journalists from execution.Reporters Without Borders (RSF) wrote on Monday to Secretary General Ban urging him to intercede in the case of Adnan Hassanpour and Abdolvahed Botimar, two journalists who were sentenced to death on 16 July, and to ask the Islamic Republic of Iran to adhere to the international treaties it has signed concerning civil and political rights, the group announced in a public statement on Tuesday.“Their most basic rights were violated as they were barred from court when the sentence was handed down”, the letter said. “Even more egregiously, they were not notified of the sentence and only found out from a newspaper”.Hassanpour and Botimar (who is also known as “Hiva”), were allowed a visit from a family member in their prison in Sanandaj, in Iran’s Kurdish northwestern region, on 8th of August, RSF said. “They discovered they had been sentenced to death from a report in the daily Kayhan. They have been on hunger strike for nearly 30 days, and are consuming only water to which some sugar is added”.The letter pointed out that 11 journalists are currently in prison in Iran for “trying to do their job”. “Some are serving sentences imposed in trials with no due process. Others are being held without trial. The prison conditions are appalling and they are denied access to the medical treatment they need”, RSF said.“Journalists are being harassed and threatened by the regime, which is waging a witch-hunt against the independent media”, the letter said. “Many of them have been brought into court on charges which are baseless but are deemed admissible by a compliant judicial system”.The letter concluded, “These men need to know that they have your support. If the United Nations were to intercede on their behalf, they would be able to recover a degree of dignity and the freedom to work as journalists. We are convinced that you could find ways and arguments to get Iran to respect the provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which it has signed”.
******
The Washington Post reported on Wednesday that The United States has decided to designate Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps, the country's 125,000-strong elite military branch, as a "specially designated global terrorist," according to U.S. officials, a move that allows Washington to target the group's business operations and finances.The Bush administration has chosen to move against the Revolutionary Guard Corps because of what U.S. officials have described as its growing involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as its support for extremists throughout the Middle East, the sources said. The decision follows congressional pressure on the administration to toughen its stance against Tehran, as well as U.S. frustration with the ineffectiveness of U.N. resolutions against Iran's nuclear program, officials said.The designation of the Revolutionary Guard will be made under Executive Order 13224, which President Bush signed two weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to obstruct terrorist funding. It authorizes the United States to identify individuals, businesses, charities and extremist groups engaged in terrorist activities. The Revolutionary Guard would be the first national military branch included on the list, U.S. officials said -- a highly unusual move because it is part of a government, rather than a typical non-state terrorist organization.The order allows the United States to block the assets of terrorists and to disrupt operations by foreign businesses that "provide support, services or assistance to, or otherwise associate with, terrorists." The main goal of the new designation is to clamp down on the Revolutionary Guard's vast business network, as well as on foreign companies conducting business linked to the military unit and its personnel. The administration plans to list many of the Revolutionary Guard's financial operations.Formed in 1979 and originally tasked with protecting the world's only modern theocracy, the Revolutionary Guard took the lead in battling Iraq during the bloody Iran-Iraq war waged from 1980 to 1988. The Guard, also known as the Pasdaran, has since become a powerful political and economic force in Iran. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad rose through the ranks of the Revolutionary Guard and came to power with support from its network of veterans. Its leaders are linked to many mainstream businesses in Iran."They are heavily involved in everything from pharmaceuticals to telecommunications and pipelines -- even the new Imam Khomeini Airport and a great deal of smuggling," said Ray Takeyh of the Council on Foreign Relations. "Many of the front companies engaged in procuring nuclear technology are owned and run by the Revolutionary Guards. They're developing along the lines of the Chinese military, which is involved in many business enterprises. It's a huge business conglomeration."The Revolutionary Guard Corps -- with its own navy, air force, ground forces and special forces units -- is a rival to Iran's conventional troops. Its naval forces abducted 15 British sailors and marines this spring, sparking an international crisis, and its special forces armed Lebanon's Hezbollah with missiles used against Israel in the 2006 war. The corps also plays a key role in Iran's military industries, including the attempted acquisition of nuclear weapons and surface-to-surface missiles, according to Anthony H. Cordesman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
******
On Monday a group of Iranian-Canadians gathered at the Human rights monument in Ottawa on Elgin Street. They were protesting against the mass executions in Iran by the Iranian regime. They were chanting slogans against the increase number of executions on the Iranian streets and the appeasement policy. They called upon Canada to support a resolution in condemnation of the Iranian regime in the United Nation.
A man was hanged in public in the northern Iranian province of Gilan on Thursday, state media reported.The unnamed man was hanged in the town of Astaneh Ashrafiyeh, the state broadcasting corporation IRIB said in a report on its website.He was accused of murder.
******
Two men were hanged in the north-eastern province of Khorassan Razavi, state media reported.The men, identified only by their initials M. T. and M. R., were hanged in a prison in the town of Taybad, the state-run news agency ISNA said on Tuesday.They were accused of drug smuggling. The report did not specify the date when the execution took place.
******
Iranian authorities in Tehran lashed a man on his back earlier this year for having a bible in his car, an Iranian Christian group said in a report on its website last Friday. The man was only identified by the initials A. Sh.On 5 May, the man, driving his vehicle, was involved in a road accident with a car belonging to security guards for a government official in Tehran. A bible and a video of Jesus Christ were found in the man's possession upon inspection of his vehicle by the state security forces (SSF). A. Sh. admitted to being Christian, prompting the security agents to beat him up, the report said. He was arrested and taken to a holding cell in Detention Centre 102. During interrogation security agents accused the man of converting from Islam to Christianity, a practice banned under Iran's strict theocratic laws.He was subsequently subjected to lashes on the back and underwent physical and psychological torture, the report added.He was released two days later after his family made bail.
******
Iranian Regime Called For Cross-Country Maneuver in Fear of Uprising
State run news agency Fars, reported on Aug. 7, deputy leader of paramilitary force of Basij, Pasdar (member of IRGC) Majid Mir-Ahmadi said: “Based on our evaluation of threats from our enemy, and in order to confront it, defense readiness of members of Basij is our first priority.” He added: “most of the battalions participating in the maneuver are equipped with modern and appropriate weaponry and the maneuver will be held under real conditions.”
******
The Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran said in a statement on Monday that the State Security Forces (SSF) opened fire on a car at the entry point to the city of Baneh in the Iranian Kurdistan on Sunday, killing three and wounding another one seriously. Outraged by the heinous crime, the local residents took to the streets in protest and clashed with the suppressive forces. The SSF attacked the angry crowd wounding a number of local residents and arresting many others. In defiance, the demonstrators torched the SSF station. Fearing the spread of protest the regime called in reinforcements from nearby towns. The clashes and unrest continued until late evening.
******
Upon calls by Amnesty International, the Confederation of International Unions and the International Federation of World Transportation, a series of rallies were staged in Paris and other European cities against the suppression of worker activists in Iran by the mullahs’ regime. The demonstrators carried placards saying: ' Syndicate Freedoms for Iranian Employees and Workers', and ' Stop Massacre', ' Release Workers and Students', and chanted slogans against the recent wave of suppression in Iran.
******
A prominent international media rights group called on the United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to take action to save two Iranian journalists from execution.Reporters Without Borders (RSF) wrote on Monday to Secretary General Ban urging him to intercede in the case of Adnan Hassanpour and Abdolvahed Botimar, two journalists who were sentenced to death on 16 July, and to ask the Islamic Republic of Iran to adhere to the international treaties it has signed concerning civil and political rights, the group announced in a public statement on Tuesday.“Their most basic rights were violated as they were barred from court when the sentence was handed down”, the letter said. “Even more egregiously, they were not notified of the sentence and only found out from a newspaper”.Hassanpour and Botimar (who is also known as “Hiva”), were allowed a visit from a family member in their prison in Sanandaj, in Iran’s Kurdish northwestern region, on 8th of August, RSF said. “They discovered they had been sentenced to death from a report in the daily Kayhan. They have been on hunger strike for nearly 30 days, and are consuming only water to which some sugar is added”.The letter pointed out that 11 journalists are currently in prison in Iran for “trying to do their job”. “Some are serving sentences imposed in trials with no due process. Others are being held without trial. The prison conditions are appalling and they are denied access to the medical treatment they need”, RSF said.“Journalists are being harassed and threatened by the regime, which is waging a witch-hunt against the independent media”, the letter said. “Many of them have been brought into court on charges which are baseless but are deemed admissible by a compliant judicial system”.The letter concluded, “These men need to know that they have your support. If the United Nations were to intercede on their behalf, they would be able to recover a degree of dignity and the freedom to work as journalists. We are convinced that you could find ways and arguments to get Iran to respect the provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which it has signed”.
******
The Washington Post reported on Wednesday that The United States has decided to designate Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps, the country's 125,000-strong elite military branch, as a "specially designated global terrorist," according to U.S. officials, a move that allows Washington to target the group's business operations and finances.The Bush administration has chosen to move against the Revolutionary Guard Corps because of what U.S. officials have described as its growing involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as its support for extremists throughout the Middle East, the sources said. The decision follows congressional pressure on the administration to toughen its stance against Tehran, as well as U.S. frustration with the ineffectiveness of U.N. resolutions against Iran's nuclear program, officials said.The designation of the Revolutionary Guard will be made under Executive Order 13224, which President Bush signed two weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to obstruct terrorist funding. It authorizes the United States to identify individuals, businesses, charities and extremist groups engaged in terrorist activities. The Revolutionary Guard would be the first national military branch included on the list, U.S. officials said -- a highly unusual move because it is part of a government, rather than a typical non-state terrorist organization.The order allows the United States to block the assets of terrorists and to disrupt operations by foreign businesses that "provide support, services or assistance to, or otherwise associate with, terrorists." The main goal of the new designation is to clamp down on the Revolutionary Guard's vast business network, as well as on foreign companies conducting business linked to the military unit and its personnel. The administration plans to list many of the Revolutionary Guard's financial operations.Formed in 1979 and originally tasked with protecting the world's only modern theocracy, the Revolutionary Guard took the lead in battling Iraq during the bloody Iran-Iraq war waged from 1980 to 1988. The Guard, also known as the Pasdaran, has since become a powerful political and economic force in Iran. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad rose through the ranks of the Revolutionary Guard and came to power with support from its network of veterans. Its leaders are linked to many mainstream businesses in Iran."They are heavily involved in everything from pharmaceuticals to telecommunications and pipelines -- even the new Imam Khomeini Airport and a great deal of smuggling," said Ray Takeyh of the Council on Foreign Relations. "Many of the front companies engaged in procuring nuclear technology are owned and run by the Revolutionary Guards. They're developing along the lines of the Chinese military, which is involved in many business enterprises. It's a huge business conglomeration."The Revolutionary Guard Corps -- with its own navy, air force, ground forces and special forces units -- is a rival to Iran's conventional troops. Its naval forces abducted 15 British sailors and marines this spring, sparking an international crisis, and its special forces armed Lebanon's Hezbollah with missiles used against Israel in the 2006 war. The corps also plays a key role in Iran's military industries, including the attempted acquisition of nuclear weapons and surface-to-surface missiles, according to Anthony H. Cordesman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
******
On Monday a group of Iranian-Canadians gathered at the Human rights monument in Ottawa on Elgin Street. They were protesting against the mass executions in Iran by the Iranian regime. They were chanting slogans against the increase number of executions on the Iranian streets and the appeasement policy. They called upon Canada to support a resolution in condemnation of the Iranian regime in the United Nation.
Saturday, August 11, 2007
NEWS))))))
Authorities hanged a man in public in the province of Golestan on Tuesday, northern Iran, state media reported. The man, identified as Nasser-Morad Qolipour, was hanged in the town of Gonbad-e Kavous, said the state broadcasting corporation IRIB in a report on its website.Qolipour had been convicted of killing an agent of Iran’s State Security Force (SSF) some two months ago.
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Iranian authorities hanged three men in the south-eastern province of Sistan-va-Baluchistan on Monday, state media reported.The men were identified as Abdul-Aziz Ismaeil Zehi, Abdul-Jamal Shahbakhsh and Ali-Akbar Shahbakhsh. The official state broadcasting corporation IRIB said in a report on its website that the men were hanged earlier in the day in a prison in the provincial capital Zahedan.It said that they had been convicted of drug smuggling and taking part in armed attacks.Iranian authorities routinely execute dissidents on bogus charges such as armed robbery and drug trafficking.
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National Council of Resistance of Iran announced on Friday: “ In past two months, The SSF gave 977,000 street warnings and arrested 4,000 others on the bogus charges of “hooliganism” NCRI - Commander of the State Security Forces (SSF) in Tehran province, Brig. Gen. Reza Zarei presented some hair-raising statistics as outcome of the so-called “public security” plan so far. “4,000 individuals were arrested by the SSF on the charges of hooliganism… In Tehran province, 93,000 individuals received street warnings while 4,012 others including 2,891 women were summoned to the local police stations,” said Zarei to the state-run news agency Fars on Wednesday. Earlier, Deputy Commander of SSF, Brig. Gen. Hossein Zolfaqari announced, “Since the beginning of the public security plan, 977,000 individuals in Tehran have received street warnings and 4,209 of them were arrested… Some of them were detained in the SSF facilities and some other were sent for judicial review,” the state-run news agency ISNA reported on August 2. In the same period, the mullahs’ regime arrested 43,300 drug addicts. An increase in the number of street executions, before anything else, is to create public fear. It is also a sign of desperation on the part of the regime which is faced with uprisings, strikes, and demonstrations in its demise. The Iranian Resistance drew the attention of international bodies to the new wave of executions as well as a rise in suppression and the need for adopting urgent measures to stop the appalling trend in Iran.”
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According to Associated France Press the Iranian police said on Thursday they have arrested 20 young people in a raid at a party in the city of Karaj outside Tehran, the site of an illegal rock concert last week where 230 were detained. Police Colonel Majid Bazmun told the state IRNA news agency that police surrounded the building where the "decadent gathering" was taking place after acting on a tip-off from a member of the public. "All the people who attended the party were arrested by the police forces. The case will be handed over to the judiciary when the investigation has been completed," he added. The latest action comes a week after police arrested 230 people in a raid on a "Satan-worshipping" underground rock concert in Karaj, in one of the biggest such arrests in recent months. There has been no further information over the fate of those arrested at the rock concert. Iran is currently in the midst of one of its tightest moral crackdowns in years, which has already seen thousands of women warned by the police for dressing that is deemed to be un Islamic. Mixed-sex parties are strictly illegal in Iran. It is forbidden to consume alcohol in public or private and attend gatherings with improperly-clad members of the opposite sex. Dancing to Western music is also frowned upon. Iran's overall police chief Esmaeel Ahmadi Moghaddam said that the moral crackdown, dubbed the drive to "elevate security in society", would continue as it had proved popular with the public. "With respect to the evaluation of the police and people's satisfaction the plan to elevate security in society will be pursued with full force," he told the Mehr news agency. "The plan of elevating social security, which has been imposed in different phases, has made people feel more secure in society and increased people's confidence in the police," he added.
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A prominent press freedoms organization urged Iran to release a newly-arrested journalist.Reporters Without Borders (RSF) called for the release of Soheil Assefi, a journalist who was arrested when he presented himself to a Tehran court on August 4th in response to a summons. "Neither his family nor his lawyers know where he is being held or what he is charged with. Officials from the prosecutor’s office searched his home on 31 July, taking personal documents and his computer’s hard disk", it said in a statement.“This situation is unacceptable”, RSF said. “He is the third journalist to be arrested in the space of [a] week. His detention brings to 11 the number of journalists and cyber-dissidents held in Iran, which is the Middle East’s biggest prison for the press. Iran must stop hounding journalists by bringing trumped-up charges against them”.On 31 July, journalists Masoud Bastani and Farshad Gorbanpour were arrested by authorities. Bastani was freed after several hours but Gorbanpour was transferred to security section 209 in Tehran’s Evin prison on the orders of Tehran prosecutor Saeed Mortazavi, RSF said. The group also condemned the suspension earlier this week of the daily Shargh on the orders of the Commission for Media Authorization and Surveillance for publishing an interview with Saghi Ghahraman, a writer, poet and editor of the online exile newspaper Cheraq, in which she defended homosexuals. The commission is controlled by the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance.
Authorities hanged a man in public in the province of Golestan on Tuesday, northern Iran, state media reported. The man, identified as Nasser-Morad Qolipour, was hanged in the town of Gonbad-e Kavous, said the state broadcasting corporation IRIB in a report on its website.Qolipour had been convicted of killing an agent of Iran’s State Security Force (SSF) some two months ago.
******
Iranian authorities hanged three men in the south-eastern province of Sistan-va-Baluchistan on Monday, state media reported.The men were identified as Abdul-Aziz Ismaeil Zehi, Abdul-Jamal Shahbakhsh and Ali-Akbar Shahbakhsh. The official state broadcasting corporation IRIB said in a report on its website that the men were hanged earlier in the day in a prison in the provincial capital Zahedan.It said that they had been convicted of drug smuggling and taking part in armed attacks.Iranian authorities routinely execute dissidents on bogus charges such as armed robbery and drug trafficking.
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National Council of Resistance of Iran announced on Friday: “ In past two months, The SSF gave 977,000 street warnings and arrested 4,000 others on the bogus charges of “hooliganism” NCRI - Commander of the State Security Forces (SSF) in Tehran province, Brig. Gen. Reza Zarei presented some hair-raising statistics as outcome of the so-called “public security” plan so far. “4,000 individuals were arrested by the SSF on the charges of hooliganism… In Tehran province, 93,000 individuals received street warnings while 4,012 others including 2,891 women were summoned to the local police stations,” said Zarei to the state-run news agency Fars on Wednesday. Earlier, Deputy Commander of SSF, Brig. Gen. Hossein Zolfaqari announced, “Since the beginning of the public security plan, 977,000 individuals in Tehran have received street warnings and 4,209 of them were arrested… Some of them were detained in the SSF facilities and some other were sent for judicial review,” the state-run news agency ISNA reported on August 2. In the same period, the mullahs’ regime arrested 43,300 drug addicts. An increase in the number of street executions, before anything else, is to create public fear. It is also a sign of desperation on the part of the regime which is faced with uprisings, strikes, and demonstrations in its demise. The Iranian Resistance drew the attention of international bodies to the new wave of executions as well as a rise in suppression and the need for adopting urgent measures to stop the appalling trend in Iran.”
******
According to Associated France Press the Iranian police said on Thursday they have arrested 20 young people in a raid at a party in the city of Karaj outside Tehran, the site of an illegal rock concert last week where 230 were detained. Police Colonel Majid Bazmun told the state IRNA news agency that police surrounded the building where the "decadent gathering" was taking place after acting on a tip-off from a member of the public. "All the people who attended the party were arrested by the police forces. The case will be handed over to the judiciary when the investigation has been completed," he added. The latest action comes a week after police arrested 230 people in a raid on a "Satan-worshipping" underground rock concert in Karaj, in one of the biggest such arrests in recent months. There has been no further information over the fate of those arrested at the rock concert. Iran is currently in the midst of one of its tightest moral crackdowns in years, which has already seen thousands of women warned by the police for dressing that is deemed to be un Islamic. Mixed-sex parties are strictly illegal in Iran. It is forbidden to consume alcohol in public or private and attend gatherings with improperly-clad members of the opposite sex. Dancing to Western music is also frowned upon. Iran's overall police chief Esmaeel Ahmadi Moghaddam said that the moral crackdown, dubbed the drive to "elevate security in society", would continue as it had proved popular with the public. "With respect to the evaluation of the police and people's satisfaction the plan to elevate security in society will be pursued with full force," he told the Mehr news agency. "The plan of elevating social security, which has been imposed in different phases, has made people feel more secure in society and increased people's confidence in the police," he added.
******
A prominent press freedoms organization urged Iran to release a newly-arrested journalist.Reporters Without Borders (RSF) called for the release of Soheil Assefi, a journalist who was arrested when he presented himself to a Tehran court on August 4th in response to a summons. "Neither his family nor his lawyers know where he is being held or what he is charged with. Officials from the prosecutor’s office searched his home on 31 July, taking personal documents and his computer’s hard disk", it said in a statement.“This situation is unacceptable”, RSF said. “He is the third journalist to be arrested in the space of [a] week. His detention brings to 11 the number of journalists and cyber-dissidents held in Iran, which is the Middle East’s biggest prison for the press. Iran must stop hounding journalists by bringing trumped-up charges against them”.On 31 July, journalists Masoud Bastani and Farshad Gorbanpour were arrested by authorities. Bastani was freed after several hours but Gorbanpour was transferred to security section 209 in Tehran’s Evin prison on the orders of Tehran prosecutor Saeed Mortazavi, RSF said. The group also condemned the suspension earlier this week of the daily Shargh on the orders of the Commission for Media Authorization and Surveillance for publishing an interview with Saghi Ghahraman, a writer, poet and editor of the online exile newspaper Cheraq, in which she defended homosexuals. The commission is controlled by the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance.
Saturday, August 04, 2007
NEWS)))))
Iranian regime hanged the killers of a judge on Thursday.
Majid Kavousifar and Hossein Kavousifar, his nephew, were hanged in front of Tehran's Ershad judiciary complex, where they shot dead judge Hassan Moghaddas in his car in 2005.
The two were not political activists, but Tehran's public prosecutor said Majid had believed the judge was corrupt. The prosecutor said the killers were also convicted of armed robbery and other murders.
Iran has one of the highest rates of execution in the world.
Hoods over the heads of the judge's killers were removed before the hangings, which took place from the back of tow trucks in front of a giant portrait of Moghaddas. Hossein looked pale and cried. He was in his early twenties. His uncle smiled and waved goodbye to friends. Prosecutor Saeed Mortazavi said: "the two were terrorists."
Dozens of people have been executed for rape, smuggling and other offences in Iran in recent weeks. Most were arrested in a crackdown on "immoral behavior", which began in April.
Also Iranian regime hanged nine men on Wednesday for rape, armed robbery and other offences. Some 16 people were hanged in July.Murder, rape, adultery, armed robbery, apostasy and drug smuggling are all punishable by death under Iran's Islamic Sharia law, imposed since the 1979 revolution.
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Iranian authorities hanged seven people in public on Wednesday, official state media reported while showing images of the men hanging.
Five men were hanged in the city of Mashad, north-east Iran. State television aired footage of the hanging. The men, all handcuffed, were hanged under a banner which read, "Implementation of justice equals improvement of security”.Two other men were executed elsewhere in Mashad, state media reported.
All seven were accused of charges including rape, kidnapping and robbery.Iranian authorities routinely execute dissidents on bogus charges such as armed robbery and drug smuggling.
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Associated Press reported that the Iranian judiciary confirmed that two journalists from the country's Kurdish minority have been sentenced to death, state media reported Tuesday.
The two men, Adnan Hassanpour and Hiva Boutimar, were sentenced on the charge of "moharebeh,'' a term Iran uses to describe a major crime against Islam and the state, judiciary spokesman Ali Reza Jamshidi told the Islamic Republic News Agency. "Moharebeh'' literally means "fighting'' in classical Arabic. The journalists were deemed activists in Sanandaj, the capital of the western Iranian province of Kurdistan, which borders Iraq. They were detained after Kurds protested in Sanandaj in 2005.
Meanwhile The European Union called on Iran on Friday to stay the execution of two Kurdish journalists accused of having ties to armed groups.
“The EU is especially concerned about the death sentences on the two Kurdish journalists, Adnan Hassanpour and Abdolwahed Boutimar”, said a declaration by the EU’s Portuguese Presidency. “The EU calls on the Islamic Republic of Iran to halt the executions of Adnan Hassanpour and of Abdolwahed Boutimar and to ensure that the two accused be given a fair trial”, it said. Both men were handed down death sentences on 16 July by a court in Iran’s north-western province of Kurdistan.The 27-nation block also expressed deep concern about the “series of collective public executions” that have been taking place in several regions of Iran during the last month, as well as with the “growing number of death sentences both at first level courts and at the Supreme Court”.
“The EU is also particularly troubled by the growing repression against all groups which exercise their right to freely express their opinions, in particular in Kurdish and Arab minority regions”, the statement said.
“The EU, while condemning the increasing recourse to the death penalty in the Islamic Republic of Iran, reiterates its longstanding opposition to the death penalty in all circumstances”, it added
Iranian regime hanged the killers of a judge on Thursday.
Majid Kavousifar and Hossein Kavousifar, his nephew, were hanged in front of Tehran's Ershad judiciary complex, where they shot dead judge Hassan Moghaddas in his car in 2005.
The two were not political activists, but Tehran's public prosecutor said Majid had believed the judge was corrupt. The prosecutor said the killers were also convicted of armed robbery and other murders.
Iran has one of the highest rates of execution in the world.
Hoods over the heads of the judge's killers were removed before the hangings, which took place from the back of tow trucks in front of a giant portrait of Moghaddas. Hossein looked pale and cried. He was in his early twenties. His uncle smiled and waved goodbye to friends. Prosecutor Saeed Mortazavi said: "the two were terrorists."
Dozens of people have been executed for rape, smuggling and other offences in Iran in recent weeks. Most were arrested in a crackdown on "immoral behavior", which began in April.
Also Iranian regime hanged nine men on Wednesday for rape, armed robbery and other offences. Some 16 people were hanged in July.Murder, rape, adultery, armed robbery, apostasy and drug smuggling are all punishable by death under Iran's Islamic Sharia law, imposed since the 1979 revolution.
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Iranian authorities hanged seven people in public on Wednesday, official state media reported while showing images of the men hanging.
Five men were hanged in the city of Mashad, north-east Iran. State television aired footage of the hanging. The men, all handcuffed, were hanged under a banner which read, "Implementation of justice equals improvement of security”.Two other men were executed elsewhere in Mashad, state media reported.
All seven were accused of charges including rape, kidnapping and robbery.Iranian authorities routinely execute dissidents on bogus charges such as armed robbery and drug smuggling.
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Associated Press reported that the Iranian judiciary confirmed that two journalists from the country's Kurdish minority have been sentenced to death, state media reported Tuesday.
The two men, Adnan Hassanpour and Hiva Boutimar, were sentenced on the charge of "moharebeh,'' a term Iran uses to describe a major crime against Islam and the state, judiciary spokesman Ali Reza Jamshidi told the Islamic Republic News Agency. "Moharebeh'' literally means "fighting'' in classical Arabic. The journalists were deemed activists in Sanandaj, the capital of the western Iranian province of Kurdistan, which borders Iraq. They were detained after Kurds protested in Sanandaj in 2005.
Meanwhile The European Union called on Iran on Friday to stay the execution of two Kurdish journalists accused of having ties to armed groups.
“The EU is especially concerned about the death sentences on the two Kurdish journalists, Adnan Hassanpour and Abdolwahed Boutimar”, said a declaration by the EU’s Portuguese Presidency. “The EU calls on the Islamic Republic of Iran to halt the executions of Adnan Hassanpour and of Abdolwahed Boutimar and to ensure that the two accused be given a fair trial”, it said. Both men were handed down death sentences on 16 July by a court in Iran’s north-western province of Kurdistan.The 27-nation block also expressed deep concern about the “series of collective public executions” that have been taking place in several regions of Iran during the last month, as well as with the “growing number of death sentences both at first level courts and at the Supreme Court”.
“The EU is also particularly troubled by the growing repression against all groups which exercise their right to freely express their opinions, in particular in Kurdish and Arab minority regions”, the statement said.
“The EU, while condemning the increasing recourse to the death penalty in the Islamic Republic of Iran, reiterates its longstanding opposition to the death penalty in all circumstances”, it added
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