Another rape victim was executed in Iran
Hossein Esmailpour was a student at a
religious school in Rudsar, Iran's Gilan province. Hossein was repeatedly raped
from the age of 14 at this school by Ayatollah Fakhri Langaroudi who had a
prominent position at the school. Hossein killed Ayatollah Fakhri Langaroudi on
Sept. 15, 2014. Hossein was executed on Sat. Dec. 2, 2018 in Central Rasht
prison in Lakan. According to Hossein's father, the family couldn't prove
Hossein's rape case, because Langaroudi was a clergy.
******
On Thursday Dec. 7, the Iranian regime
executed 12 prisoners in Kerman. The identities of four of the victims are
known to be Abdulghani Ghalandarzehi, Yagub Ghalandarzehi, Jalil Khodabakhsh,
Yusef Jalaledin, are all from the Baluchi minority ethnicity. On
November 21, the Iranian regime executed three prisoners in a public hanging in
Shiraz and on November 14, 10 prisoners in Gohardasht prison, Karaj were hanged.
******
Amnesty International on Dec. 4, 2018 published
a report about the 1988 massacre of political prisoners in Iran titled: Iran
committing crimes against humanity by concealing fate of thousands of
slaughtered political dissidents. By concealing the fate and whereabouts of
thousands of political dissidents who were forcibly disappeared and secretly
executed in prison 30 years ago, Iranian authorities are continuing to commit
crimes against humanity, said Amnesty International in a damning report
published on Dec. 4.
“The fact that to this day the Iranian
authorities refuse to acknowledge the mass killings, tell relatives when, how
and why their loved ones were killed and identify and return their bodies,
means that the enforced disappearances are continuing today. This has inflicted
torturous suffering on victims’ families. Until Iran’s authorities come clean
and publicly reveal the fate and whereabouts of the victims, these crimes
against humanity are ongoing.”
This report unravels the web of denials and
distortions that the Iranian authorities have perpetuated over 30 years, both
at home and internationally, to hide the truth that they forcibly disappeared
and systematically killed thousands of political dissidents within a matter of
weeks.
For 30 years, families of victims
have been denied the right to bury their loved ones and mourn their loss. Those
who dare to seek truth and justice have faced relentless harassment,
intimidation, arbitrary arrest and detention, as well as torture and other
ill-treatment. Further suffering has been caused by the desecration and
destruction of mass grave sites.
Meanwhile, individuals responsible for these
crimes against humanity have evaded justice and in some cases those involved
have held and continue to hold powerful positions in Iran today. More recently,
after further evidence of what happened emerged, the mass killings have been
celebrated in the country and those involved hailed as heroes.
“Instead of continuing their cruel attacks
against families, the Iranian authorities should be ensuring their right to
truth, justice and reparation – including returning victims’ bodies and
identifying remains by allowing professional exhumations of mass graves and DNA
analysis,” said Philip Luther.
******
Iranian students held
gatherings in Tehran, Tabriz, Semnan, Babol, and other cities across the
country on Saturday, December 8, 2018, to honor and observe the Student Day in
Iran. young women of Tehran
University observe the Student DayIn Tehran, students of Tehran University,
held a gathering and sit-in by the entrance gates of the university to observe
the Student Day. When the State Security Force intended to disperse the
participants, girl students stood up to them. One of the girl students called
on other students to come to their aid.
On the same day,
students of the Teachers' Training University in Tehran also held a gathering
on the occasion of the Student Day.
Students of Electrical
Engineering and Computer Sciences at the Noshirvani University of Babol,
Mazandaran Province in northern Iran, held a gathering on their campus while
holding pictures of the students killed on December 7, 1953. They called for
the release of imprisoned teachers and students.
Students of the
University of Technology No. 1 in Tabriz, East Azerbaijan Province,
northwestern Iran, also commemorated the Student Day by holding a gathering on
Saturday and lining up their food trays on the floor to protest the low quality
of food.
In Semnan, students of
the School of Engineering and Computer held a free speech forum to commemorate
the Student Day, and a number of the students made speeches. Two days earlier,
Thursday, December 6, 2018, when the mullahs' president, Hassan Rouhani,
visited the University of Semnan, students shouted at him and asked, "What
is your answer to high prices and inflation?”
Noshirvani students
observe the Student DayIn Kermanshah, western Iran, a group of teachers held a
picket on the occasion of the Student Day and congratulated all Iranian
students. They called for the release of imprisoned teachers and workers.
Students of the Medical
Sciences University of Tabriz, held a sit-in outside the office of the
university's president on Thursday, December 6, 2018, to protest insufficient
legal supervision of the university's conducts.
On the same day,
employees of the Hospital of Karaj held their 34th round of protests to demand
their unpaid wages long overdue.
On December 6 and 7,
2018, a woman teacher from Isfahan and Ms. Adineh Baigi -wife of the imprisoned
teacher activist Mahmoud Beheshti- paid visits to Hamid Rahmati, a teacher, who
has been on hunger strike since December 1. He is sitting in the court yard of
the Department of Education in Shahreza, Isfahan Province, demanding freedom of
imprisoned teachers.
On Thursday, December
6, 2018, some 150 of the staff and employees of the Parseh Clinic in Kermanshah
staged a protest against sealing off of the clinic. A large number of women
participated in and led this protests. They were demanding that the Prosecutor
of Kermanshah stop this inhuman measure as a result of which a large number of
people lose their jobs.
defrauded clients of
the IRGC-backed Caspian Credit Institute held a gathering outside the mullahs'
parliament in Tehran on Thursday, December 6. A similar protest gathering ws
held in Kerman in front of one of the branches of the institute.
Also, on Thursday
night, a group of political and civil activists visited the mother of Dr.
Farhad Maysami, political prisoner who has been detained for his protest
against the mandatory veil.
******
On Saturday Dec. 8, workers of
the National Steel Industrial Group in Ahvaz, Khuzestan province in southwest
Iran, took to the streets of this city for the 29th consecutive day to demand
their rights and protest the regime’s corrupt policies.
Rallying outside the Bank Melli branch, the
workers were chanting, “The voice of each worker says down with oppressors.”
The workers were marching toward the main streets of the city.
The workers of the Ahvaz steel factory have
been demanding their overdue salaries for months. The lives of thousands of
workers and their families have been negatively impacted by the deteriorating
working conditions at the factory and the corrupt practices of its
administrators. Having received no concrete response from the government, the
workers began a new round of strikes and protests more than four weeks ago.
The Iranian regime has attempted to dissuade
the workers from continuing their protests through different means. Regime
authorities have also issued threats against the protesters, seeking to
associate them with foreign meddling.
All in all, for the workers of Ahvaz,
deprived of their most basic rights, the regime’s threats are sounding
increasingly hollow. The workers continue to take to the streets day after day,
and they are earning a growing amount of support among different classes and
communities in the Iranian society and across the world.
In their protests, the workers were
chanting, “Our country is full of thieves, setting an example in the world.”
They were also chanting, “Proud Ahvazis,
support, support; We will uproot cruelty; Rouhani, you liar, what happened to
your solutions?”
The workers were chanting, “Government,
mafia, congratulations on your unity; Bank Melli, shame on you, let go of
National Group; Ahvaz’s main center of corruption is right here [referring to
Bank Melli]; Neither threats, nor prisons, none are no longer effective; The
National Group is dead because of Bank Melli.”
As the protesters moved across the city,
many other Ahvaz citizens joined them and expressed their support for their
demands.
Iranian authorities are reluctant to
directly confront the workers with force. On Saturday, a number of Iranian
regime plainclothes agents were present among the protesters but were afraid to
take any action. After nationwide protests erupted in Iran, the regime’s
attempts to quell protests through violence have resulted in direct
confrontations between protesters and security forces. The Iranian regime is
finding itself increasingly incapable of containing the Iranian people’s rage
and dissatisfaction. Meanwhile, protests by workers, teacher, drivers, students
and other strata of the Iranian society are picking up steam and momentum.
******
A female student named Asal Mohammadi in
Tehran and a woman named Medina Neasi from Ahvaz, have been detained for
unknown reasons.
Asal Mohammadi, a labor activist and a
student at the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences at Azad University of
Tehran, was arrested at her home by security forces on Tuesday, December 4,
2018, and transferred to Branch One of the Prosecutor's Office in Evin Prison.
Asal Mohammadi had published articles on
various websites in support of Iranian workers. In recent weeks, Asal Mohammadi
had also written articles in support of the ongoing protests of the Ahvaz Steel
and Haft Tappeh workers.
In the wake of a wave of arbitrary arrests
by the clerical regime in Khuzestan Province, seven residents of Ahvaz and
Hamidieh including a woman were detained by security forces and transferred to
an unknown location.
Ms. Medina Neasi, a resident of Kouy-e
Pastorizeh neighborhood, was arrested in Ahvaz on November 28, 2018, along with
her brother.
Previously in spring, Khadijeh Neasi and
Ayesheh Neasi had been arrested in the protests in Ahvaz against an offensive
program broadcast by the state television network insulting Arab Iranians. At
least 15 women are said to be among those arrested and presently detained in
the women’s ward of the Sepidar Prison of Ahvaz.
The Iranian regime has launched a new
crackdown on the populace in and around Ahvaz, making hundreds of arbitrary
arrests since September 22, 2018, when the parade of its military forces were
attacked by armed men. Around 800 people from Khuzestan province have been
detained by security forces and under interrogation. Arab human rights
activists have announced that many of the detainees are civil activists.
Ameneh Zaher Sari, a graduate of accounting
from Ahvaz, a 20-year-old pregnant woman by the name of Lamya Hemadi from
Susangerd, Mrs. Zoudiyeh Afrawi, 55, and Mrs. Ghaisiyeh Afrawi, 60, residents
of Albou Afri village in Susangerd, are among those arrested.
The arrests are made arbitrarily and without
legal warrants. Intelligence agents and security forces raid houses early
morning or after midnight, brutalize the families and take away the family.
******
Meimanat Hosseini-Chavoshi, a professor of
demography and a dual citizen, was recently arrested in Iran on charges of
espionage during a research trip from Australia to Iran.
Ms. Meimanat Hosseini-Chavoshi, an Iranian
demographer and a Research Fellow of the General Policies Institute at the
Australian National University, who had traveled to Iran for scientific
activities, was detained on charges of espionage.
Ms. Hosseini-Chavoshi is also listed by the
University of Melbourne as working at its School of Population and Global
Health.
A lawyer, Mahmoud Behzadi, confirmed the
arrest of Meimanat Hosseini-Chavoshi on charges of " infiltration"
and said that the individual has not had a lawyer yet.
Mahmoud Behzadi said that according to the
new procedure, detainees accused of "security" charges must choose a
lawyer from a list of "trusted" lawyers approved by the Judiciary and
Ms. Hosseini has not chosen a lawyer until now.
The state-run IRNA and Fars news agencies
confirmed the arrest of the dual citizen professor. On Saturday, December 1,
2018, the state-run Kayhan daily newspaper reported on the arrest of several
demography activists who had infiltrated in governmental agencies under the pretext
of scientific activities.
The newspaper said that they took advantage
of the statistics and provided sensitive information to Iran's enemies as part
of "efforts for cultural and social invasion."
In the past year, several Iranian
researchers in areas such as environment were arrested by the clerical regime.
In an illegal action in June this year, the
mullahs’ Judiciary announced that only 20 lawyers were trusted to take charge
of legal and political cases. Independent lawyers not backed by the government,
women attorneys, directors of the lawyers’ guild of Tehran and human rights
lawyers were not included in this list. The latest measure by the Iranian
Judiciary thus deprives political prisoners and prisoners of conscience from
the right to choose their own lawyers and access to justice and fair trials. Australian government has asked its citizen to rethink going to Iran.
******
A one-year prison sentence was issued for a
woman civil activist in Tehran, and two Baha'i women arrested for their beliefs
are in an unknown state.
Elham Rasouli Baghi, a woman civil activist,
was sentenced to one-year imprisonment in Tehran. In a joint case with civil
activist Mahmoud Masoumi, Elham Rasouli Baghi received a one-year in prison
sentence by Mohammad Moghisei, the current head of Branch 28 of the Tehran
Revolutionary Court. Ms. Baghi has been charged with participating in protests,
having contacts with families of detainees, and insulting the mullahs’ leader.
Earlier, this woman civil activist was arrested in a gathering in protest
against administrative corruption in Iran, in front of the Dena Tyre building
in Tehran on May 12, 2016.
On Wednesday, November 28, 2018, in addition
to the wave of systematic arrests of Baha'i citizens, Neda Shabani, a Baha'i
woman from Karaj, was arrested by security forces and transferred to an unknown
location.
Also, the situation of another Baha'i woman,
Elham Salmanzadeh imprisoned in Evin Prison is currently unclear. Elham
Salmanzadeh was arrested and transferred to Evin Prison on October 16, 2018, by
security forces in Karaj after they inspected her house and confiscated her
personal belongings and books. After 46 days of being imprisoned, her situation
is still unclear. Despite the repeated inquiries by the Baha'i woman’s family,
no authority has responded.
In November 2018, five Baha'i women were arrested
or imprisoned in Mashhad, Isfahan and Tabriz because of their religious
beliefs. The imprisonment or expulsion of Baha'i women and citizens from work
and education began since the mullahs' regime began ruling in Iran.