Thursday, September 29, 2005

Round-up of News on Iran 9/29/2005

Political Prisoners
Imprisoned Lawyers Wife Speakes out. Massoumeh Dehqaan has spoken out about her husband's, Abdolfatah Soltani, incarceration. He has been in prison for 58 days now, and no lawyer or NGO has been able to see him. He was representing the family of murdered photo-journalist Zahra Kazemi and several incarcerated student activists.

Eli Lake at the New York Sun: Ganji's Wife Goes Public. Massoumeh Shafiehhas not seen her sick husband since August 26, 2005. Reporters without Borders have spoken out saying they believe he is in solitary confinement where only the Revolutionary Guards have access to him.

IranPressNews: Ismail Mohammadi and Mohammad Panjooyi were executed on September 3, 2005. Ismail had been in prison for 3 years, and he suffered much torture. There are more political prisoners, Behrooz Javid-Tehrani, Bina Darab-Zand and Hodjat Zamani, who were threatened by the Islamic Republic's judiciary.

Student leader dissident, Ali Afshari, was jailed for 6 years. He has already spent 3 years in prison since 2000. The charge is "attacking national security," and he also received 5 years deprivation of civic rights.

Human Rights Violations. Three human rights defenders are reported to have been detained in recent weeks: Azad Zamani, a member of the Association for the Defense of Children's Rights from Sinne; Jalal Qavani, a journalist, and Mahmoud Salehi, a labor rights activist. These are women.

Other News
Iran Focus: The Revolutionary Guard is going to extend the "plan" to arrest dissidents and "trouble makers," because the program has been "successful." They have locked up many people you would send the ACLU to go after for such things!

Khaleenj Times: Iran has decided to sever ties to the EU in favor of Russia, China, and other members of the non-aligned movement. Iranian Reformists are against this move, as well as the nuclear plans of this new government.

The Media Line: "Arab opposition groups in Iran's Ahvaz region began a 'full boycott' on Monday against what they called the "Iranian occupier." They are calling for a boycott of all political, economic, social, and cultural cooperations with the occupying enemy."

The Globe and Mail: Kazemi-linked journalist denied asylum in Sweden. "Early this year, Rabi Nikoo, a 38-year-old Iranian exile in Stockholm, helped emergency room physician Sharam Azam find the contacts he needed to reveal his explosive testimony that Ms. Kazemi had been beaten, tortured and raped in an Iranian prison." <...> This is a must read for those who care about justice for this woman's son pictured to the right.

Technorati tags: , , and . Hat tip to Daily Briefings on Iran.