NEWS))))))

110 MPs Urge UN Secretary General to Protect Iranian Dissidents

Huffington Post, wrote on 24 Feb that a letter signed by 110 cross-party MPs and Peers was on Thursday delivered to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in Lancaster House urging him to ensure United Nations protection for 3,400 Iranian dissidents in Camp Ashraf, Iraq.
The letter was supported by senior Parliamentarians.
The Parliamentarians expressed ‘deep concern regarding the relocation of the first group of 400 residents of Camp Ashraf to Camp Liberty’, a former US base near Baghdad airport now a de facto prison used by Iraq to house the dissidents.
The MPs and Peers’ letter said: ‘A group of 400 residents showed utmost flexibility and prepared themselves to move to Camp Liberty on 17 February. This was at a time when many basic necessities at the new camp were clearly lacking. This gesture of goodwill by these residents was responded to by the Iraqi government ordering its police at the new camp to be offensive and hostile.’
‘Iraqi forces in the presence of UN monitors prevented the residents from transferring medication and medical supplies, a generator, office equipment including chairs, tables and photocopiers, a water heater and hygiene products. ‘Camp Liberty, contrary to UNAMI’s 31 January statement, does not conform to international standards from the point of view of infrastructure. Upon arrival residents found that there was no electricity or water and its hygienic services were filthy and unusable. ‘With Mrs Rajavi having convinced the residents to accept this risky transfer, the current conditions at the camp are totally unacceptable. We expect the United Nations, with the support of the US government and the European Union to make a clear stand against the limitations that the Iraqi government is imposing on the residents. The UN, US and EU must ensure the human rights of the residents are met. UNAMI cannot justify a stance which is clearly not neutral as a result of Iraqi pressure. ‘We urge you firstly to ensure that the Iraqi police station and its forces leave the camp and are stationed outside the perimeter of it. Furthermore, you must guarantee the safety and well being of the residents by ensuring they have direct and free access to medical services and that their freedom of movement is secured. UNAMI must keep the gates of Camp Liberty open to reporters, lawyers and the families of the residents.
‘In such circumstances there can be no further transfer of residents to Camp Liberty until such time as the current 400 residents at Camp Liberty have been safely transferred to third party states’, the letter said.

Iranian regime sentences another man to eye retribution

According to ISNA state-run news agency Mohammad-Reza N who was convicted of throwing lime in the eyes of Fatemeh K [which blinded her in both eyes] was sentenced to eye retribution in both eyes and being blinded. This is an inhumane way of punishment in Iran.

The Iranian regime hanged 2 men in Mazandaran

The Mazandaran Public and Revolutionary Prosecutor said that two rapists were executed in the cities of Sari and Tonekabon… The official website of the Mazandaran Judiciary wrote: “According to the verdict issued by the 2^nd branch of the province and its confirmation in one of the branches of the Supreme Court, the two convicts were sentenced to death. The sentences were carried out at dawn today after the approval of the head of the Judiciary”, Hojatol Islam Asdollah Jafari said. “Their requests for amnesty were brought up in the Judiciary but were not accepted”, he added.

Student Activist sewed his lips together in protest in Iran, Now arrested

Freedom Messenger reported that a student Activist Dariush Jalali has been arrested for the second time this week.  The young student activist was violently detained by security forces on February 23rd and has been taken to an unknown location. Jalali sewed his lips together and chained himself to a metal rail outside of his university as an act of protest earlier this week. He said I sewed my lips because no one heard my cry against injustice. I chained my feet because my running didn’t take me anywhere, No matter how much I shouted, no one heard me. I said maybe my silence will be heard. I ran and ran but no one saw it. I said maybe I will be noticed by being in chains.” Jalali has already spent 3 months behind bars and has now been banned from his University classes.

 

400 Iranian residence of camp Ashraf left for camp Liberty to show good gesture

CNN reported on Sat. Feb. 18 from Baghdad that about 400 members of an exiled Iranian opposition group who are the first to leave a long-term camp in Iraq under a U.N. plan criticized their treatment and the conditions at the new temporary site Saturday. The group left Camp Ashraf at midnight following 12 hours of inspections and checks, Shahin Ghobadi of the National Council of Resistance of Iran said in a statement. When they arrived seven hours later at the new site, a former U.S. military base near Baghdad International Airport long known as Camp Liberty, the group discovered a heavy presence of police. Camp Liberty has been renamed “Camp Hurriya” and is now an Iraqi facility. Another inspection was then demanded, prompting the residents to protest what they consider “degrading, humiliating and inhumane treatment” and the obstructive behavior of the Iraqi forces by refusing to leave the transit buses, Ghobadi said. “The preliminary reports indicate that Camp Liberty (Hurriya) is a prison from all aspects,” he added. The group’s relocation to the new site was agreed between the United Nations, Iraqi authorities, the United States and the European Union. The U.S. commended Iraq for the relocation to the camp and called for the Iranian expatriates to cooperate with Iraqi and U.N. authorities in a State Department statement from spokeswoman Victoria Nuland Sunday. From Camp Hurriya, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees will begin efforts to resettle the group outside of the country. Martin Kobler, the U.N. secretary general’s special representative and head of the U.N. Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI), was at the temporary site to welcome the new arrivals. Camp Ashraf has been home to members of the Mujahedin-e Khalq, or MEK, for more than 25 years. More than 3,000 exiles, described as Iranian resistance figures and their sympathizers, live at the camp. The MEK has been on the U.S. terrorism list since 1997 but since 2004, the United States has considered the residents of Camp Ashraf “noncombatants” and “protected persons” under the Geneva Conventions. Before moving, the Camp Ashraf residents had demanded a commitment that no Iraqi police would remain inside the new site, in order to ensure the security of the residents. The group believes the current regime in Iraq, under orders from Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, has previously staged deadly attacks against Camp Ashraf.

Instead, there are several police posts inside the facility and residents must be accompanied by the police even to go to the dining area, Ghobadi said.

30 Million lose email access in Iran

An Iranian news agency reports that more than 30 million people in the country have lost access to foreign email services such as Gmail, Yahoo mail and Hotmail. The Saturday report by the semiofficial Mehr agency says that the authorities in the national telecommunications company declined to comment on the outage that began Thursday, saying that it had no connection to them.

Young death row political prisoners deny fabricated charges and say they were tortured

After the Supreme Court officially upheld the death sentences of political prisoners Zaniar and Loqman Moradi and the fabricated stories about their ‘crimes’ in state-run media, Zaniar and Loqman published an open letter denying these charges and gave information about their case. They requested a fair trial and due process in a healthy judicial procedure.

Iranian regime secretly hanged 2 men in Rasht’s Lakan Prison

According to reports by Human rights and democracy activists in Iran, on Saturday January 28, two prisoners were secretly hanged in the Lakan Prison in Rasht. They were identified as Ayoub Kalantari, 28 and Mohammad-Reza Sharifi, 40, who was from Baluchistan. 

Ashraf residents’ relatives arrested in Iran

According to Mojaheding- khalgh website one week after the Iranian regime’s agents arrested Alireza Jabbari and Mohammad Rahmani, both relatives of Ashraf residents, no information exists about their whereabouts. This source said that the Iranian regime has been placing pressure on Ashraf residents’ families in Iran, arresting many for no reason. Alireza Jabbari and Mohammad Rahmani are former political prisoners during the 1980s whose have been arrested and imprisoned again and again during the past few years.

Protesters storm 5 of Syria’s embassies in Europe, Middle East

Associated Press reported on Feb. 4th demonstrators have stormed five Syrian embassies in Europe and the Middle East after Syrian forces reportedly killed more than 200 people in the city of Homs. British police used batons to beat back protesters attempting to storm the Syrian Embassy in London for a second time after successfully breaking in early Saturday. A similar scene played out in Athens before dawn, where police said 13 people — 12 Syrians and one Iraqi national — were detained after forcing their way into the Syrian Embassy before dawn. In Germany, 20 people forced their way into Syria’s Embassy in Berlin. Syrian protesters in Cairo set part of the embassy on fire Friday night, while protesters in Kuwait broke windows at the embassy and hoisted the opposition flag. Syria’s government has denied the assault on Homs, calling news reports about it part of a “hysterical campaign” of incitement by armed groups against Syria, meant to be exploited at the U.N. Security Council as it prepares to vote on a draft resolution backing an Arab call for President Bashar Assad to give up power. A vote which was scheduled in New York on Saturday, got vetoed by China and Russia for the second time.