Sunday, August 18, 2019

NEWS))))))


The IRGC (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps) arrested several young women for attempting to enter Iranian stadiums to watch soccer match and transferred them to Qarchak Prison in Varamin. The arrests are said to have taken place upon the request of Mehdi Taj the president of the Football Federation in Iran.
The IRGC Intelligence forces arrested several young women on August 12, who circumvented Iran’s ban on women in stadiums by entering a stadium disguised as men to watch a football match. Zahra Khoshnavaz, Leili Maleki, and Hedieh Marvasti are among those who were arrested. Forough Alaei, a photographer for Donya-ye Eqtesad is also among those arrested.

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15 civil rights activists, including five women, were transferred from Iran's Vakilabad Prison to the Intelligence Department in Mashhad on Wednesday morning, August 14. The activists were arrested on Sunday, August 11, participating in a protest in front of the Mashhad court, simultaneous to the trial of a university professor, Kamal Jafari Yazdi. Five women are among those detained, three of whom have been identified as Hurriyeh Farajzadeh, Fatemeh Sepehri, and Pouran Nazemi.
The state-run Fars News Agency confirmed the arrests of the activists on Sunday, August 11, accusing them of “disrupting security” and of “being in contact with groups supporting regime change.”
In other news, Raha Ahmadi was transferred to Qarchak Prison in Varamin on Sunday, August 11, 2019, following an arraignment at the prosecutor’s office in Evin Prison. Ms. Raha Ahmadi has been sentenced to two months’ detention and her 600 million tomans bail sentence has been rejected. She was detained by security forces on Sunday, August 4, 2019, and interrogated at Vozara Detention Center for a week.
Reports released on Wednesday, August 14, 2019, suggest that the detention sentence of Asal Mohammadi has changed to a 2 billion toman bail, which her family has so far not been able to secure. Asal Mohammadi, a civil rights activist and a student at the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences at Azad University of Tehran, and one of the defendants in the Haft Tappeh Sugar Company workers’ protests case is still in custody. She was arrested on Sunday, August 4, 2019, and transferred to Evin Prison.
Ms. Mohammadi has been charged with “forming groups with the intention to disturb national security, membership in groups or collectives with the intention to disturb national security, propaganda against the state, and assembly and collusion against national security”.
Previously, Asal Mohammadi was arrested at her home in Tehran by security forces on December 4, 2018, and transferred to the Office of the Public and Revolutionary Prosecutor of Shush, and was released on a 500 million toman bail.


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Without any explanation, Evin Prison authorities canceled the visitation of Ms. Farangis Mazloum with her family, which was arranged in coordination with her detention unit. Farangis is the mother of political prisoner Soheil Arabi. She was arrested by security forces on July 22, and is currently being held at the Ministry of Intelligence’s detention center, Ward 209 of Evin Prison. She is being held in prison only for defending her son and being the voice of this political prisoner. Given her history of heart problems, her family is very worried.
- Labor rights activist Narges Mansouri was arrested by security forces on Monday, August 12. Narges is a member of the Syndicate of Workers of Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company who was arrested a day after the arrest of a number of trade and civil activists in Mashhad and her whereabouts are not known.
- A court hearing on the charges against journalist and labor activist Marzieh Amiri who was arrested on the International Labor Day was held in the Tehran-Iran Court on Tuesday, August 13. Sharia Judge Moghiseh has rejected Marzieh Amiri’s request to change her temporary detention verdict to bail. Marzieh Amiri suffered from epileptic seizures at the time of interrogation due to physical and psychological pressures.
- At a news conference, Gholamhossein Esmaili, spokesman for the judicial system of Iran, confirmed the arrest and detention of Noushin Jafari, theater and cinema photographer, saying Noushin Jafari was detained on charges of “sacrilege,” “denigrating” a religious mourning anniversary and “propaganda against the Islamic Republic.”
- As a result of the international campaign to save the lives of political prisoners in Qarchak Prison, Saba Kord Afshari, Yasaman Aryani, Monireh Arabshahi, Mojgan Keshavarz, and Sima Entesari were transferred to Evin Prison from Qarchak Prison in Varamin on Tuesday, August 13, 2019. On the same day, Sufi woman Elham Ahmadi was released from Evin Prison after the end of her sentence.