By Jubin Katiraie
A spokesman for Iran’s Judiciary has outright rejected that there are political prisoners in Iran, despite a wealth of information proving that the contrary is true.
Political prisoners in Iran have been mistreated for decades. They are often locked up for long periods of time, sometimes in solitary confinement and sometimes in the same wards as violent criminals. They are routinely denied the most basic of rights – rights that should be guaranteed under international law.
By Pooya Stone
United States President Donald Trump said on Monday Iran was playing with fire after Tehran said it had exceeded its limit for low-enriched uranium allowed under a 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.
Asked at a White House event if he had a message for Iran, Trump said: “They know what they’re doing. They know what they’re playing with and I think they’re playing with fire”.
By Jubin Katiraie
The European Union’s special trade mechanism with Iran, aimed at bypassing U.S. sanctions is useless, according to the Iranian ambassador to the United Nations.
“INSTEX (Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges) is a beautiful car without fuel,” Majid Takhtravanchi said.
By Pooya Stone
On Saturday, June 29, the compound of the Iranian opposition People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI or Mujahedin-e Khalq, MEK) in Albania, called Ashraf 3, welcomed an international delegation that supported the democratic alternative to Iran’s clerical rule, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI).
Participants, including parliamentarians, jurists, and civil society figures from all over Europe and Australia, participated in a conference called “The mullahs’ regime, a source of war and instability in the region; the Iranian Resistance, messenger of peace and freedom”, where they discussed the belligerence and terrorism of the mullahs.
By Jubin Katiraie
The German Intelligence Agency has revealed in its latest report that Iran’s Intelligence Ministry plotted assassinations of the Iranian opposition Mujahedin-e Khalq (People’s Mojahedin or MEK, PMOI) from the Iranian Embassy in Berlin.
The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution of Germany (BfV) released its 2018 report on June 27, which revealed that Iran’s secret service was involved in the “bombing plot against the annual gathering of the PMOI in June 2018 in Villepinte near Paris”.
By Pooya Stone
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has praised the Revolutionary Guards for its downing of a US drone just over a week ago, claiming that this shows some sort of Iranian superiority.
He said: “We hit the drone with a system that is constructed in Iran, its missile is made by Iran, its radar is made by Iran, that is, we searched with our Iranian radar, we locked with Iranian radar, we targeted it with our Iranian missile … We kiss the hands of all those who created this domestic industry in the Ministry of Defence, the hands of all who used this tool well in the Revolutionary Guards.”
By Jubin Katiraie
Iran has breached the limit of its enriched uranium stockpile set in a 2015 deal with major powers, two sources told Reuters on Monday, defying a warning by European co-signatories to stick to the deal despite sanctions by the United States.
“As we announced when we said our steps would continue, the stockpile has passed 300 kg,” one of the sources said.
By Pooya Stone
During the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) it was revealed that the Iranian economy’s attraction of foreign capital has decreased by 28% last year and has reached $4.1 billion.
Foreign direct investment (FDI) is real investment by foreign companies in Iran in which those companies manage, control and own the related assets.
By Jubin Katiraie
An Iranian Azeri activist arrested last year has been sentenced to 13 years in prison by an Iranian court.
Security forces arrested Kazem Safabakhsh during a soccer match between Perspolis and Tractor Sazi last November. On Monday, the 28th branch of the revolutionary court in Tehran sentenced him to 13 years in prison.
By Pooya Stone
On Wednesday, June 26, Haji Reza Shakarami, the provincial attorney general of Alborz Province, north of Iran, reported the arrest of 11 citizens who walked their dogs in public in the city of Karaj.
The arrests took place despite the fact that last Sunday the attorney-general himself had separately stated that walking leashed dogs in public was not a crime, the state-run Tasnim news agency reported.
