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Six prisoners were hung in Rasht and Zahedan in Iran

According to a statement by the National Council of Resistance of Iran on May 27, the Iranian regime hung six prisoners in Rasht, northern Iran, and Zahedan, southeast Iran.
The statement reads: on Monday, May 24, five prisoners including a woman were hung behind the medical center in Rasht prison. The regime has not yet reported the hangings. Fars news agency, affiliated to the regime’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, (IRGC/Pasdaran) reported Wednesday, May 26, that the execution of one prisoner in Zahedan identified as Jamshid M. According to this report he was arrested a month ago. With the latest reports on hangings, the number of executions in past four days reaches 8 in Iran. NCRI added: rising number of executions, widespread arrest of young people under the cover of so called “social security plan,” increasing suppression of women for “improper veiling” and other repressive measures on the brink of anniversary of the people’s uprising in Iran, are aimed at intensifying the atmosphere of intimidation to prevent spread of social upheavals.

The Iranian regime says it will not stop the executions

State-run news agency ISNA on May 26 said that the Secretary of the Office of Human Rights in Iran, Mohammad Javad Larijani, said in a meeting with the Australian Ambassador that, “We do not endorse complete eradication the death sentence.” In a meeting with the Norwegian Ambassador he said, “Human rights is not a Western concept and the West cannot claim such a thing.” and “The issue of human rights is a matter that relates to culture and civilization of various kinds and every civilization and culture has its own specific human rights values,”.

International appeal to save the Life of an Iranian political prisoner

Majid Tavakoli, a political prisoner, who yesterday was on his nineth day of dry hunger strike and was fallen critically ill, transferred to the public ward of the Evin prison after international pressure to save his life. In a show of solidarity for his action, his mother along with a number of other political prisoners, joined in with their own hunger strikes. On May 23, Majid Tavakoli, a student activist from Tehran Polytechnic University, started a dry hunger strike to protest against his transfer to solitary confinement. His move followed pressures by the regime’s prosecutor Jaafari Dowlatabadi on 100 political prisoners forcing them to repent in writing and appeal to the regime’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei to pardon them. Majid and most of the prisoners have refused and this angered the regime’s henchmen. So they transferred him to solitary confinement. Majid Tavakoli was arrested on December 7 (Student Day) and transferred immediately to solitary confinement in Ward 209 of notorious Evin prison. After months of solitary confinement under sever conditions and enduring physical and psychological tortures, he developed various ailments including problems with his lungs. Majid Tavakoli had been arrested twice before in 2007 and 2008 and had spent more than 18 months in prison. Majid Tavakoli’s family in a letter to Ban Ki Moon asked him to intervene and dispatch special rapporteurs to Evin prison to investigate Tavakoli’s situation.

Laughing is banned at Shiraz University

According to the disciplinary regulations at the University of Shiraz, laughing, talking and joking aloud on the university campus are prohibited. This is the first time that such regulations have been put in place at university level in the country. This regulation entails seven chapters and 23 sections and has already been distributed amongst the students. Some of the rules reflected in the disciplinary regulations are:

1- Ban on short sleeve shirts

2- Loose outfits must be worn

3- Wearing T shirts forbidden for male students

4- Wearing garments with sharp colors are forbidden for female students

5- Long nails are forbidden for female students

6- Students must bathe regularly

7- Male students must have short hair

8- Shoes with heals higher than 3 centimeters may not be worn

9- Pointed shoes must not be worn

In chapter 6 of the disciplinary regulations titled 'behavior', it’s mentioned that such acts like talking, joking, and laughing out loud in elevators and coffee shop are banned.
In the final chapter, students have been threatened that in the event of repeated violations, they will be referred to the disciplinary committee. The disciplinary regulations that was recently distributed amongst the students, was ready for implementation at least three months ago. University management had not implemented the new regulations in this period, because of the students’ objections and protests.

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Trial starts for man tied to Iran’s nukes
United Press International reported on Thursday that the first-ever trial of a Canadian accused of trying to ship to Iran equipment that could be used in the building of a nuclear weapon has begun in Toronto. Mahmoud Yadegari, arrested in April 2009, is the first person charged in Canada under the United Nations Act for trying to send devices to Iran that could be used to build nuclear weapons, the Toronto Star reported Wednesday. He also faces nine other counts under the Criminal Code, Customs Act, the Export and Import Permits Act, and Canada’s Nuclear Safety and Control Act. Prosecutors accused the Iranian-born businessman of using his home-based company to try to export to Iran two of 10 pressure transducers via Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. The instruments, which convert pressure measurements into electrical signals for electronic devices, have civilian uses but can be used when enriching uranium for nuclear weapons, officials said. Prosecutors have asked the judge to allow some admissions Yadegari made to police while in custody.
’Mr. Yadegari is going to testify that he was threatened and this is not a voluntary statement,’ his lawyer, Frank Addario, told Justice Cathy Mocha in a hearing outside of the Wednesday. Yadegari did not confess during a police interrogation, but later admitted to officers during a nightly check that he received several hundred dollars per sale, Royal Canadian Mounted Police Sgt. Kelly Helowka testified. Among other things, Yadegari told officers he was instructed to hide that the ultimate destination for the devices was Iran, Helowka said, characterizing the man’s remarks as a ’spontaneous declaration,’ not a statement. The case has drawn international attention, including a proposal by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahamdinejad that Yadegari be included in a swap of Iranians in U.S. prisons for three U.S. hikers held in Tehran.

Man hanged in central Iran
Iran Focus reported on Friday that the Iranian regime hung a man in the central city of Isfahan, state media reported on Friday. The state-run news agency Fars identified the man only by his first name Mohammad. He was accused of murder. Two other men, identified only by their first names Azizollah and Morteza, were hung in a prison in Isfahan earlier this week. Amnesty International says Iran carried out the highest number of executions in 2009 after China.

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Strike in most Kurdish cities

People of Kurdistan-Iran staged a public strike by closing their shops in many Kurdish cities such as: Sanandaj, Kamiaran, Saghez, Marivan, Bookan, Mahabad, Oshnavieh, Piranshahr, Baneh and Divan dareh in protest against the execution of 5 dissidents including a woman last Sunday. The Iranian regime had based its special forces in some of the Kurdish cities where 2 people were shut and injured. Outside Iran, the Iranians in many cities including Ottawa gathered in front of the Iranian regime’s embassies and protested against the execution of 5 people last Sunday. Some people broke embassies windows and showed their anger.

Iranian regime confirms death sentence for opposition activists

Associated France Press reported that the death sentence for six opposition activists arrested in protests after last year’s disputed presidential election in Iran have been confirmed, Tehran prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi said Saturday. The six were accused of belonging to the exiled and outlawed People’s Mujahedeen, the opposition group the Islamic republic’s regime calls 'the hypocrites.' Three were arrested after opposition protests during the Shiite mourning holiday of Ashura last December, Dolatabadi said, naming them as 'Ahmad Daneshpour Moghadam, Mohsen Daneshpour Moghadam and Alireza Ghanbari.' 'Their death sentences have been confirmed, but they have asked to be pardoned,' the Fars news agency quoted Dolatabadi as saying. It quoted the prosecutor as saying the death penalty for the other three, Mohammad Ali Saremi, Jafar Kazemi and Mohammad-Ali Haj-Aghai who were arrested in September last year, had also been confirmed.

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- Iranian regime hung 5 political prisoners in Evin prison
- Objection to Iran being seated at UN Commission on Women
- US Schools Receiving Iran-linked Money from Alavi Foundation

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>> Plitical prisoners staged a hunger strike in solidarity with workers and teachers in Iran