Jailed Iranian opposition lawyer is on hunger strike
Associated Press reported: A prominent Iranian human rights lawyer has gone on a hunger strike to protest her detention in solitary confinement on suspicion of spreading propaganda against the ruling system, her husband said Wednesday. Nasrin Sotoudeh told her husband in a phone call from Evin Prison, north of Iran’s capital, that she began a hunger strike on Sept. 25, he said. Sotoudeh’s husband, Reza Khandan, said she told him that she was being held in solitary confinement in a phone conversation that lasted only a few seconds. When she added that she was being threatened, prison officials cut the call mid-sentence, Khandan told The Associated Press. The lawyer was summoned by an official notice to Evin Prison last month and did not return home, he said. The 45-year-old Sotoudeh is a mother of two small children.
Iran’s judiciary warns gold merchants over strike
Associated Press reported: Iranian authorities have threatened to take legal action against gold merchants in Tehran’s main bazaar if they don’t call off their two-week-old anti-tax strike, local media reported Thursday. AP added: Iran’s government has been trying to find ways to boost revenue -including by raising taxes- amid low oil prices and other woes that have hampered the country’s ailing economy. But it has had to be cautious in the face of widespread public discontent. Several newspapers, including the state-owned Jamejam and the Donya-e Eqtesad economic daily, quoted Tehran chief prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dowlatabadi as saying the ’judiciary will confront whoever disturbs public order by closing the bazaar.’ He did not elaborate. Tehran’s gold merchants began their strike in September to protest a government plan to impose a 3 percent sales tax. Iran suspended the tax in 2008 after a rare strike by merchants, who fear it could lead to more income tax in the future.
Iranian regime State Security Forces open fire on protesters, wounding one
According to the state-run Central News Unit, the Iranian regime’s State Security Forces in Rasht (northern Iranian city) opened fire on protesters, leaving one injured. According to reports, a family staged a protest to the mismanagement to necessary medical care for their loved one, which led to his death. When State Security Forces intervened, the family members clashed with the suppressive forces. State Security Forces opened fire in response, injuring the child of the deceased patient and arresting 8 members of the family.
Steel producers stage protest in Iran capital
Iran Focus reported on Friday that the Steel producers and distributors in Tehran on Thursday staged protests in several locations in the Grand Bazaar and surrounding areas, including in the Sabz-e Meidah bazaar. Hundreds of people came to their support. In the three-hour protest that began at 9am, the protesters carried placards calling on the authorities to meet their demands.
