Security and Anti-terrorism Committee of the Iranian resistance in its statement dated Dec. 27, said: According to reports from inside the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), following the large number of IRGC casualties in Syria, especially the death of General Hossein Hamadani, commander of the Iranian regime’s forces in Syria, and injury to Commander of the IRGC Quds Force (QF) Qassem Soleimani, Khamenei has appointed a new commander in Syria.
SAC added: Following the death of IRGC Brigadier General Hossein Hamadani, Brigadier General Mohammad Jafar Assadi, one of the most veteran commanders in the IRGC and a close associate of Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari, Commander in Chief of the IRGC, was appointed by Khamenei as Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps commander in Syria. Assadi has many years of experience in export of terrorism and meddling in the affairs of countries in the region. In Syria, he is known as Abu Ahmad.
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According to sources of Mojahedin of Iran (MEK or PMOI) from inside Iran, the regime intelligence ministry agents raided the house belonging to the families of 2 MEK members residing in Camp Liberty, Iraq, which houses the Iranian dissidents arresting Mrs Azar Karvandi and Mrs. Fatemeh Rezvani. The families had gathered to celebrate the traditional ceremony of ’Yalda night’, the longest night of the year which rests on Dec. 21st. The raid was sudden and meant to disrupt and harass members of the opposition. The agents arrested two women whom their relatives are among the MEK. One was killed during Iraqi raid on Camp Ashraf, former house to MEK Iranian dissidents and another man who still lives in Camp Liberty. The agents of the infamous ministry of intelligence also took family albums and other personal belongings. Some reports indicates that Karvandi and Rezvani are being held in the notorious Evin Prison in Tehran.
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According to Independent, December 24, China and Iran top the list of the world’s leading jailers of
The report released last week said a quarter of the 199 journalists worldwide who were in prison as of Dec. 1 because of their work were in China. The Communist Party-run country under President Xi Jinping had 49 journalists behind bars, the highest number for China since the CPJ began its annual survey in 1990.
Washington Post reporter is among the 19 journalists that the CPJ lists as being behind bars in Iran, an Islamic republic under Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Hassan Rouhani .
The CPJ report does not list journalists who are held by non-state groups such as the Islamic State but estimates that at least 40 journalists are missing in the Middle East and North Africa, with many thought to be held by militant groups.
A separate report released Tuesday by the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders lists 153 journalists currently imprisoned around the world, along with 161 'citizen journalists.' The report also said 54 journalists are currently being held hostage around the world, with the Islamic State group holding 18 in Syria and Iraq and the Houthi rebel group in Yemen holding 9.
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Despite continuous condemnation of human rights in Iran particularly the recent condemnation by the
world body of violation of human rights and shocking increase in the number of executions in past two year in Iran, the regime on Thursday hanged a group of eight prisoners in the central prison in Qazvin, northern Iran. Among those executed was a 42-year-old Kurdish prisoner called Rahim Karim-Mokarram, according to local reports.Another eight prisoners were hanged in mass on Tuesday, December 22, in Qazvin Prison.
On Wednesday, December 23, five people in a prison in Kerman, eastern Iran were executed. Among the five were Yousef Rigi, from the south-eastern city of Zahedan, and two prisoners originally from Saravan, south-eastern Iran.
Also on Wednesday two other people were hanged in the notorious Qezel-Hesar Prison in Karaj, north-west of Tehran.
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Mr. Ebrahim Firouzi, an Iranian Christian prisoner in the Gohardasht Prison in Karaj, north-west of
the Iranian capital Tehran, is being deprived of medical treatment by the regime even though he suffers from acute diseases, according to local reports.It is over a year now that he is suffering of acute pain in the left side of his chest and his condition has deteriorated in the past three months. The Iranian regime refuses to release him as his prison term ended on Jan. 13, 2015.
Firouzi was arrested on August 25, 2013 and condemned by a court in Robat Karim, south-west of Tehran, to one year in prison and two years exile in Sarbaz County. New bogus charges were raised against him on March 8, 2015 for ‘acting against national security’ through community means, and he was subsequently condemned to five years in prison by the so called judge Moqiseh in Branch 28 of the regime’s courts. He is currently in detention in Ward 10 of Gohardasht prison.
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According to sources and eyewitness, after 17 days of hunger strike and in inhumane condition of the
prison, the health condition of the prominent political prisoner Arjang Davoudi severely deteriorated and forced the prison authorities to transfer him to outside hospital. He was unable to speak and could hardly walk. But less than 24 hrs later and before he could receive proper and full treatment, he was returned back to his prison cell. His health has since got worse. Another prominent political prisoner, Afshin Buymoni is also on hunger strike. He and Arjang started a hunger strike more than two weeks ago in protest of separating them from the rest of political prisoners and moving them to another ward among common criminals.
Afshin Buymoni’s teenage daughter also went on hunger strike outside the prison protesting brutal treatment of her father. Donya Buymoni who is also suffering from heart problem said relocating her father and Mr. Arjang out of political prisoner’s ward and in to common criminal section is insult to all political prisoners. She added that she would go on hunger strike in solidarity with her father and other political prisoners.
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Clashes erupted on Tuesday between shopkeepers and agents of the Iranian regime in the capital Tehran. Harassment of a group of children carrying goods by municipal agents triggered a protest by shopkeepers in the area. The shopkeepers first protested the arrest of the work-children by municipal agents and subsequently clashed with the agents, preventing the children’s arrest. During this clash, one of the agents that had stolen the money of a child was beaten up, and eventually the municipal agents were forced to retreat.
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The Washington Times carried the Christmas and New Year massage of Mrs. Maryam Rajavi on its
website uploading a video clip of her greetings. Mrs. Rajavi president-elect of the Iranian National Council of Resistance wished that 2016 would be a year of unity and victory over Islamic extremism and especially the religious fascism ruling Iran and its evil allies in the Middle East who sow the seeds of enmity in the world. Rajavi said 'we remember Jesus Christ when he said: ’Love one another just as I love you’. She prayed that May the message of compassion, freedom and tolerance engulf the Middle East, and may the world get relieved from tyranny and fundamentalism and have a new birth and revival.
