By Pooya Stone
A state-run news agency in Iran has reported that a 17-year-old boy has been sentenced to 100 lashes for a crime he allegedly did not commit. The ROKNA news agency said that he was sentenced to the lashes on 15th July, accused of abusing an 11-year-old boy in the city of Tehran. But the boy’s parents had retracted the complaint against the boy, but the Iranian Judiciary refused to cancel the sentence.
By Jubin Katiraie
The UK is worried about a British-Iranian aid worker wrongfully jailed in Iran and recently transferred to the mental ward of a public hospital and called for her release on Wednesday.
Prime Minister Theresa May’s spokesman said: “We are extremely concerned about Nazanin [Zaghari-Ratcliffe]’s welfare and call for her immediate release. We urge Iran to allow family members to visit her and check on her care.”
By Pooya Stone
Iranian authorities have hanged ten prisoners in the past few days in the cities of Mahshahr, Nowshahr, Urmia, and Khandab, with two being hanged in public.
On Wednesday, Iran hanged one inmate in Bandar Mahshahr, southwest Iran, but his name is unknown. They also hanged two inmates convicted of drug charges – Moharam Nemati and Asgar Bartar – in Urmia prison in northwest Iran, who it’s believed were transferred to solitary confinement on Tuesday in preparation for their executions.
By Jubin Katiraie
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe is a British-Iranian dual citizen that was arrested and sent to prison in Iran in April 2016 where she has been detained since. The Iranian authorities have charged her with spying and attempting to topple the country’s government. Officials have said that she was in charge of a “foreign-linked hostile network”. Tehran’s prosecutor general said almost two years ago that Nazanin is being detained because she was running a journalism course with the purpose of spreading propaganda about the regime.
By Pooya Stone
Donald Trump said that Iran cannot test ballistic missiles after Iranian foreign minister Javad Zarif raised the idea of talks about his country’s missile program. This is because the US sees ballistic missiles as vehicles to carry nuclear bombs.
Trump said Tuesday: “We want to help them, we’ll be good to them, we’ll work with them, we’ll help them in any way we can, but they can’t have a nuclear weapon…. They can’t be testing ballistic missiles, which right now under that agreement [the 2015 Iran nuclear deal] … they would be able to do.”
By Jubin Katiraie
The US has tightened travel restrictions on over a dozen Iranian diplomats and their families living in New York, according to a US diplomatic note sent to the Iran mission to the United Nations on July 12.
These diplomats are subject to the same restrictions that the US imposed on Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who arrived in the country on Sunday amid heightened tensions between the two nations.
By Pooya Stone
It has been confirmed that an academic with dual French and Iranian nationality has been arrested and detained during a trip to Iran. Fariba Adelkhah is a researcher at the prestigious Sciences Po university in Paris.
In a live broadcast on Tuesday, Gholamhossein Esmaili, a spokesperson for the Iranian judiciary confirmed that she was in custody in the country, but refused to give any further information. Esmaili said: “This person was detained recently (…) but due to the nature of the case, this is not the proper time to give any information about it.”
By Jubin Katiraie
Tensions in the Middle East are escalating with the Iran’s government standing accused of being responsible for a number of provocations. The United States has been particularly vocal about Iran’s belligerence in the region and it has requested military backing in the Strait of Hormuz.
By Pooya Stone
United States sanctions targeting the Iranian government are working, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Monday.
Some people said “American sanctions wouldn’t work if the Europeans didn’t come along. And that’s turned out to be false. They have worked”, Pompeo said in a radio interview with Sean Hannity of The Sean Hannity Show.
By Jubin Katiraie
During the summer of 1988, more than 30,000 political prisoners were executed in Iranian prisons. The vast majority were supporters and sympathizers of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) but there were also other victims such as supporters of leftist groups.
