Over 490,100 people have died of the novel coronavirus in 547 cities across Iran, according to reports tallied daily by the Iranian opposition People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) as of  Dec. 19.

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After 11 days of being held incommunicado, Leila Hosseinzadeh called home on Saturday, December 18, from Evin Prison’s Intelligence Ministry Ward 209. Having no news on her, Leila’s elderly father, 85, had inquired about her from the Revolutionary Court of Shiraz interrogator earlier that day. The interrogator, Seyyed Mohammad Khosravani, told him that Leila had been sent to Tehran’s Evin Prison last week. Leila Hosseinzadeh was arrested on December 7, 2021, while visiting Shiraz, the capital of Fars Province in southern Iran. Security forces arrested Leila Hosseinzadeh and nine friends at gunpoint and confiscated their mobiles and identity papers. https://tinyurl.com/2p86b5ax

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The Revolutionary Court of Tehran issued 60 months in prison for four female political prisoners serving their sentences in the notorious Qarchak Prison. Reports on December 16, indicate that the Revolutionary Court of Tehran issued a total of 60 months of jail term for Parastoo Mo’ini, her mother Zahra Safaei, Forough Taghipour, and Marzieh Farsi. The court had convened on November 24. The authorities of Qarchak Prison fabricated a new case for the four female political prisoners because they sent out a letter in June, calling for the boycott of the clerical regime’s sham presidential election. Each of them has been sentenced to an additional 15 months in prison. Of the four female political prisoners, only Parastoo Mo’ini had attended the trial on November 24. The prisoners’ lawyers were not present in the court, either. Therefore, the court issued its verdict in absentia. The presiding Sharia judge, Afshari, warned Ms. Mo’ini that he would send her to exile in a remote area. https://tinyurl.com/29uda7h8