Women’s Rights Activists Detained in Iran

On March 26, 2009 - 12 members of One Million Signatures Campaign and Mothers for Peace arrested by security forces at a meeting place on a street corner that they were heading to visit the families of political prisoners during Persian New Year holiday.

All detainees were taken to a police station then to notorious Evin Prison. Islamic Regime has discouraged any meetings that sound politics or has anything to do with prisoners specially political prisoners, in fact they have raided meetings political or any meeting that encourages political prisoners and outsiders. Although visiting friends and families is a custom during Persian New Year holidays but paranoid authorities didn’t tolerate simple New Year visit and greetings.

One more important thing is, these activists have been arrested on their meeting place on a street corner, means they have been under surveillance (watched or their phone lines tapped) and that raises concerns.


Hat tips: Campaign For Equality (Persian language)

Iran ‘silver medal’ for execution

In 2008 Iran at least (because regime doesn’t publish stats) put 346 people to death, just second after China. Unfortunately “stoning and hanging were among the cruel and inhumane methods used with at least 346 people put to death, including eight juvenile offenders.”

And don’t forget to take into consideration that corrupted judicial system in Iran handed down those death sentences after unfair trials. Iranian judiciary system doesn’t respect human rights, due process rights and law which supposed to be guarantor of laws and rights in the first place but in reality they have been taking confessions under torture from detainees and issue death sentences based on those confessions.

Juvenile executions are obvious form of violation of International law which Iran doesn’t respect the very basic International rights of child and it is just another example that there is no respect to international laws within Iranian judiciary.


Hat tips: Amnesty International: Cruel, discriminatory, unfair and degrading – the death penalty in 2008

Iranian Detainee tortured to death

On March 25, Ali Badozadeh’s body found tortured on the outskirt of Mahabad city, northwestern Iran.

He was accused of “cooperating with the Kurdish political parties, having information about his nephew’s activity and others who were involved with Kurdish political parties” and taken to custody for interrogation by security forces on March 18, 2009.

His brother, Jahangir Badozadeh sentenced to death and currently is in the central prison of Orumieh.

Unfortunately Kurdish minority has been facing systematic discrimination and ill treatments by the state since 1979 Islamic revolution.

Hat tips: Rotten Gods: Detainee tortured to death

Iranian blogger died suspiciously in prison

Iranian blogger, Omidreza Mirsayafi has died in prison under suspicious circumstances. He was just 28 years old blogger who criticize Islamic republic of Iran and its ayatollahs, Khomeini, Khamenie and Rafsanjani in a short essay.

Prison authorities said he committed suicide with high dose of medicine. I don’t buy it, how on the earth he had access to high does of medicine at the first place? It just doesn’t add up because in prison they don’t permit people to have shoelaces to prevent any possible motive for suicide and it is against prison policy to provide any medicine that prisoners could hurt themselves. Prisoners in Iran only would get regular medicine for headache and stuff like that. There is no doubt that his death is fabricated.

Read the full article in here

Political prisoner died suspiciously in Iran

On March 06, 2009 Amir Hussein Heshmat Saran, Iranian political prisoner died in prison. He was prescribed with some unknown medical powder at the Gohardasht Karaj prison health center. After he used this medicine, he went into coma for 48 hours and despite taking him to hospital, sadly he didn’t survive.

From the moment that his family noticed about his critical conditions they wanted to visit him in hospital but intelligent service agents thwarted them. Although he was unconscious, agents handcuffed him to the bed until he died.

It seems this is the new approach of Islamic regime to get rid of political prisoners. Instead of prescribing regular medicine, they provide them some powder which could be mixture of anything like drugs or poisons and at the end they issue death certificate inside of prison by the very same doctors who prescribed the medicine.


Hat tips: Rotten Gods

Kurdish Juvenile tortured killed

Body of sixteen year old Iranian Kurd, Behzad Golmohammadi that were tortured and shot by revolutionary guards found in sub-zero temperature in the middle of snowy mountains on the other side Iran-Turkey border.

He was arrested by Iranian border agents who in fact are revolutionary guards on February 20. His uncle said: “Iranian military forces which arrested my nephew asked for 10,000,000 Rials cash to release him. We had to accept their demands and should provide the money but when we wanted to go to their post-station to give them money, they shot at us with automatic weapons. They were broke his hands and legs and shot him.”

Photos are graphic so I didn’t put here, but there is one that you can see here.

Also Farhad Khalili, 22 years old who were accused of cooperation with guerillas, was arrested on February 19, were tortured and killed by authorities.


Hat tips: akhbare-rooz, Iranian Woman

Sufi Holy Site demolished by Iranian authorities in Isfahan

On February 18, 2009 in the early hours of February 18, some 200 members of the security forces, police, and plainclothes agents raided a house of worship of the Sufis in Isfahan.

Some Sufis were at the site to protect the house from sudden and unannounced demolition by security agents which several Sufi sites demolished in the same way during recent months throughout Iran. Their cell phones cut off to prevent them from informing others and were taken to custody.

They said that the security forces cut off water and electricity to the area, and destroyed the walls around the poet's tomb with a bulldozer. They also destroyed the library where [religious] books were kept. They demolished the big hall where we had our Monday and Friday ceremonies and also our Sunday dawn meetings. They took away all the carpets and other property.

Authorities released detained Sufis after they completed the demolition.

Sufi sites after demolition

Sufi sites before demolition

Hat tips: RFE/RL, Majzob (Persian language)

Destruction of Baha’i graves

This has done by some fanatics - government backed - on November 2008 in Qaemshahr. It is not the first time that Islamic regime is destroying Baha'is' grave in Iran.


Video from: Human Rights Activists in Iran

Iran destroys grave site of mass killings of political prisoners

Iranian authorities carried out mass executions of political prisoners between August 1988 and February 1989, often referred to as “prison massacres”. It was the largest mass executions since those carried out in 1980 and 1981 after the Islamic revolution in 1979.

Iranian authorities buried bodies in mass and individual unmarked graves in Khavaran. Even their families were banned to visit this site for a long time till couple of years ago after long outcry from their loved ones and international organizations like Amnesty they could have visit this site.

Now after more than 20 years of massacres, Iranian authorities determined to destroy anything that has to do with barbaric killings of innocents and even they destroyed markings on some areas that made by families of executed and covered most part of the site with soil and planted trees.

There is no hope that Iranian authorities would investigate these violations and people who were committed “prison massacre” but still Iranians and especially who lost their loved ones demand to know the truth, and bring to justice people who were responsible for these inhuman human slaughters.


Links:
Iranian Minorities Human Right Organisation
Khavaran: silencing the dead
Rooz (Persian Language)