Monday, February 18, 2008

NEWS))))))

Reuters reported that the Iranian police have detained two women's rights campaigners and accused them of spreading propaganda against the Islamic state, a fellow activist said on Saturday. Raheleh Asgarzadeh and Nasim Khosravi were detained in a Tehran park on Thursday while collecting signatures in support of a campaign to demand greater female rights, activist Sussann Tahmasebi told Reuters. A court set bail of 200 million rials (around $21,400) each, but they could not pay so they were sent to the capital's Evin prison on Saturday, she said. The ISNA news agency carried a similar report, quoting their lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh.

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Adnkornos International reported on Feb. 12th that Yaghoub Mehrnahad, a student and journalist from the Beluchi ethnic group, is the latest person to be condemned to death in Iran. The trial against Mehrnahad took place behind closed doors on Monday without legal representation or his family.According to the student site of the Amir Kabir University of Technology in Tehran, the young journalist was arrested last April at the end of a debate organised in Zahedan, capital of Iranian Beluchistan.His family last saw him in Zahefan prison last December saying his body showed obvious signs of torture.Quoted on the Amir Kabiri site, Yaghoub's younger brother said it was being said that his brother had died in prison after being tortured and his trial and death sentence was only a way to hide the truth.Mehrnahad is accused of having had contact with the armed group of Jondollah, that operates in Iranian Beluchistan.Mehrnahad is not the first journalist condemned to death in recent years. Two other Kurdish journalists, Hiwa Boutimar and Adnan Hassanpour were condemned to death last July and are awaiting execution.