NEWS))))))
The Conservative Party won the Ontario election by majority. PC leader Doug Ford said: "We have taken back Ontario". Liberal Kathleen Wynne lost badly and from 124 seats, only kept 7 seats. NDP and its leader Andrea Horwath is now the official Opposition.
******
Yesterday June 9 the Iranian-Canadians gathered in Ottawa in front of the Parliament Hill and across from Prime Minister's office, in support of Iranian protesters and strikes. They aslo supported the Iranian resistance annual gathering in Paris of June 30th.
******
Hassan Tardast, the judge who issued the death penalty for Reyhaneh Jabbari, was introduced as a trusted lawyer to undertake the cases of political prisoners and prisoners of conscience in Iran.
The Iranian Chief Justice has endorsed a list of 20 lawyers as trusted defense attorneys to represent political prisoners and prisoners of conscience in their trials. According to this extrajudicial measure, from now on, only these 20 lawyers are permitted to defend cases involving political and security charges. Independent lawyers not backed by the government, female lawyers, directors of the lawyers’ guild of Tehran and human rights lawyers have not been included in this list. The latest measure by the Iranian regime's Judiciary thus deprives political prisoners and prisoners of conscience from the right to choose their own lawyers and access to justice and fair trials. Hassan Tardast has presided over a number of controversial cases including the case of Reyhaneh Jabbari, as a judge. He has issued some 800 retribution verdicts (death penalties), many of which contained ambiguities.
Reyhaneh Jabbari, 26, was hanged in Gohardasht Prison, in Karaj, after seven years of imprisonment on October 25, 2014, for defending herself against rape by a senior Intelligence Ministry official called Morteza Sarbandi.
Other attorneys on the list have similar criminal backgrounds. As such Abdolreza Mohebbati, represented Saeed Mortazavi, the notorious Public Prosecutor of Tehran, in court during the trials of political activists and protesters arrested during the 2009 anti-government uprising in Iran.
******
A young woman who had been arrested during Iran uprising in December 2017-January 2018 has been sentenced to six years in prison. Massoumeh Mohammadi, 23, a student residing in Fereydoon-kenar, is presently detained in the Prison of Babol, in Mazandaran Province, in northern Iran. According to the data collected by the Women’s Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, at least 500 women were arrested by the regime in the protests that started in late December 2017 and continued into mid-January 2018.
******
An imprisoned Yaresan woman who has been recently hospitalized in Tehran, is under pressure by prison security guards to wear handcuffs and shackles while in hospital. Dr. Nazilla Noori, from Gonabadi Dervishes, has been imprisoned in Qarchak Prison in Varamin since February 20, 2018. Having been through torture, she is presently hospitalized in Milad Hospital of Tehran. She is waiting for operation and needs to receive special medical care.
Amnesty International issued a statement on May 25, 2018, expressing concern about the safety and health of prisoners of conscience from the Gonabadi Dervishes community in the Qarchak (or Shahr-e Ray) Prison. AI said it received testimonies indicating that doctors at the Qarchk prison, a former industrial chicken farm in Varamin, are routinely dismissing the women’s complaints of pain and discomfort as “fake” while refusing to prescribe them medication on a timely basis or carry out thorough diagnostic tests.
******
The general conditions of political prisoner Zeinab Jalalian has deteriorated in the Prison of Khoy, in northwestern Iran, and she continues to be denied medical treatment despite progress of her illnesses. On June 5, Kurdish political prisoner Zeinab Jalalian who suffers from pterygium, canker sores in her mouth and serious infection, is still denied medical care and treatment. Despite progress of her illnesses, prison officials continue to oppose her treatment outside prison and by a specialist doctor. Zeinab Jalalian, now 36 from Makou, was arrested in Kermanshah in 2008. She was first sentenced to death and then granted a life sentence on the charges of "enmity to God" and "membership in Kurdish parties".
******
Five months on, no news is available on the conditions of a young woman, Mitra Alizadeh, arrested on December 29, during the uprising in Kermanshah, western Iran. Mitra Alizadeh was arrested by agents of Kermanshah’s Intelligence Department during the unrests on December 29, and taken to an unknown location. Based on the information compiled by the Women’s Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, at least 500 women were arrested and detained during the uprising in December 2017-January 2018 in Iran.
******
The security department of the Ministry of Sports and Youths prevented women from sitting to watch a beach soccer match between South Pars and Shahin Khazar, on Friday night, June 1.The spectators chanted slogans in support of women and called for official support for their presence to watch the game. A number of women waited outside until the end of the game, but they were not allowed in and they did not manage to watch the games.
On Saturday, June 2, the security department of the Ministry of Sports and Youths, sent out a letter, announcing that Boushehri women are not allowed to watch the beach soccer games. Parviz Abdi, head of the soccer delegation of Boushehr, told the media, “Based on the law, women are banned from entering sports stadiums in Iran and prevention of Boushehri women from watching the beach soccer games was in line with enforcement of this law.”
(The state-run ILNA news agency – June 2, 2018)
