NEWS))))))

Uprising continues in 6 Iraqi provinces with 7 killed, 45 wounded in Fallujah alone

Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis took to the streets on Friday in anti-Maliki rallies across six provinces despite government security forces opening fire on protesters, killing 7 and wounding over 45 in Fallujah alone. Al Jazeera reported despite measures taken by Maliki’s security forces to close roads, a huge demonstration was staged in Fallujah condemning Maliki’s policies.
Maliki stationed anti-riot forces equipped with tanks to prevent demonstrators from gathering in the protest square. Al Rafedein TV also reported the al-Mothana Division stationed forces closing all roads leading to the square where unity prayers were to be held in the city of Abu Gharib. However, the huge crowd was able to reach the al-Hurriya Square in the town of Howaija to stage the unity prayers. Delegations of women also reached this square and joined the protesters.

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The National Council of Resistance of Iran reported that the Iranian regime amputated a 29 year old man's hand in public on Thursday in southern city of Shiraz. The victim is also sentenced to 3 years imprisonment and 99 lashes. He was charges with stealing and adultery. Hrana also reported that another man's hand was amputated on Jan. 27 in Sari for theft.  

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Iran’s judiciary should quash death sentences against five members of Iran’s Ahwazi Arab minority and immediately cancel their execution, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch said on Jan. 24. The sentences were handed down by a revolutionary court and upheld by the country’s Supreme Court on 9 January 2013.
The five men - Mohammad Ali Amouri, Sayed Jaber Alboshoka and his brother Sayed Mokhtar Alboshoka, Hashem Sha’bani Amouri, and Hadi Rashedi  are all activists in Iran’s Arab- majority Khuzestan province, in southwest Iran. A branch of the Revolutionary Court sentenced them to death on terrorism-related charges following an unfair trial in July 2012. On 18 January, authorities informed families gathered outside Karoun Prison in the south-western city of Ahvaz that the five men had been transferred out of the prison. Their whereabouts are unknown.
“The reported transfer of these men to an unknown location is an extremely worrying development, “said Ann Harrison, Deputy Middle East and North Africa Director at Amnesty International. “In Iran, death row prisoners are generally moved to solitary confinement before their death sentences are carried out, and we fear that the authorities may be planning to execute them imminently”.
Security forces arrested all five men at their homes in early 2011 in advance of the sixth anniversary of widespread protests by Ahwazi Arabs in April 2005. Authorities arrested Mohammad Ali Amouri 20 days after Iraqi authorities had forcibly returned him to Iran, from which he had fled in December 2007. Rashidi was hospitalized after his arrest, possibly as a result of torture or other ill-treatment. Sources have told the groups that he is in poor health.
Family members outside the country have said that Sayed Jaber Alboshoka’s jaw and teeth were broken during his detention and that Sayed Mokhtar Alboshoka has experienced depression and memory loss as a result of torture or other ill-treatment.
In May 2012, Al Arabiya reported that Intelligence Ministry agents forced Sha’bani to confess to crimes he had not committed by pouring boiling water on him.
A branch of the Revolutionary Court convicted the men in July 2012 on vaguely worded charges related to national security that did not amount to internationally recognizable criminal offences. These included “gathering and colluding against state security, spreading propaganda against the system, enmity against God, “or moharebeh; and “corruption on earth, “or fsad fil-arz.

 

Iranian regime: Attack on Syria is attack on us

According to Associated Press Jan. 26, a senior Iranian official says his country considers any attack against Syria an attack on itself. Ali Akbar Velayati , an advisor to Iran`s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei , was quoted by the semi official Mehr news agency on Saturday as saying that Syria plays a major role in the 'resistance front' of anti-Israel states and militant groups. "For this same reason, an attack on Syria is considered an attack on Iran and Iran's allies, " he says.
Iranian regime is Syria`s most important ally in the Middle East. Tehran has provided President Assad`s regime with military and political backing for years, and has kept up its strong support for the regime since the uprising began in March 2011.