NEWS))))))
A Student activist killed under torture in western Iran
A Kurdish student was brutally killed in custody at the Iranian intelligence ministry’s detention centre in Sanandaj where he was taken after his arrest thirteen days ago. Ebrahim Lotfollahi was a well known activist from Payam Nour University in Sanandaj, capital of the Iranian province of Kurdistan. Ebrahim’s parents who saw him for the last time after his arrest on last Wednesday told the media that “their boy showed evident signs of torture and abuse”. Regime refused to deliver his body to his family. As soon as news spread about Ebriahim’s death, dozens of students gathered at his university campus. Iranian regime’s suppressive forces have staged an unannounced martial law in the city in fear of public anger and protests. The students blame Ebrahim’s death on Mehdi Mola vali, from the office of the intelligence ministry, who reportedly conducts interrogations of political detainees and is said to use violence to obtain confessions.
Amnesty Urges Iranian regime to Stop Stoning Executions
On Tuesday, January 15, news agencies quoted right groups that the 'Amnesty International' has condemned execution by stoning in Iran and called it one of the worst types of execution. In its statement, AI called on the Iranian regime to rule out stoning from its judiciary rules. 'Amnesty International is calling on the Iranian government to abolish immediately and totally execution by stoning and to impose a moratorium on the death penalty,' the rights group said in a 30-page report on the practice. It was also mentioned in the report that the Iranian judiciary system assured the rights group 'Amnesty' five years ago to stop implementing stoning whereas in the last few months many stoning in Iran were reported.
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The Associated France Press reported on Friday that an Iranian-French journalism student who had been prevented from leaving Iran for nearly a year was en route to Paris on Friday, the French foreign ministry said. Mehrnoushe Solouki, a 38-year-old graduate student from Montreal, Canada, was arrested in February in Iran while working on a documentary film on the Iran-Iraq war. Solouki was freed from jail in March after posting bail and had since been under house arrest in Tehran. Iranian authorities do not recognize dual citizenship and insisted Solouki was an Iranian national. "We are pleased that Madame Solouki is returning to France," said French foreign ministry spokeswoman Pascale Andreani. Solouki was arrested after interviewing relatives of members of Iran's armed opposition, the People's Mujahedeen. Iranian authorities confiscated her notes and film footage and called her in for questioning. Solouki said in November that Iranian authorities had accused her of "attempting to produce a propaganda film." She has complained of being held in inhumane conditions, sleeping on the floor of a jail cell and being subjected to daily interrogations.
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French President Nicolas Sarkozy said: Paris agrees with passing a new UN resolution against the Iranian regime in the Security Council to impose further punishments by the European Union. He said that a firm position has to be taken before the Iranian regime to make sure it is not after acquiring nuclear weapon. Sarkozy specified that the US National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) has not made any changes in French policy regarding Iran. He asked the Iranian regime to end the international concerns regarding its nuclear programs. French president also asked the Iranian regime to give up fomenting violence in Iraq and Lebanon as well as helping Taliban in Afghanistan.
