Iran Focus

London, 25 Feb – While in recent days, Iranian judicial authorities have emphasized on dealing with the arrested people in the Pasdaran avenue demonstrations, some of the Friday prayer leaders in Iran called these people “terrorists” and “British affiliates”, comparing them with Daesh (ISIS) in Iraq and Syria.

Iranian authorities have repeatedly called foreign countries “responsible” for protests in Iran.

Earlier, government and security officials have accused the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran, the US, Israel and Saudi Arabia of being involved in the mass protests in Iran in early January.

Iran Focus

London, 23 Feb – Imprisoned Iranian human rights activist Narges Mohammadi has penned an open letter to judiciary chief Sadegh Larijani to condemn the Judiciary for bowing down to Iran’s security agencies and denying prisoners their rights.

Mohammadi, who is serving 16 years for her human rights activism, wrote: “[You have] repeatedly claimed that the Judiciary is an independent institution. However, such claims do not match reality. They are only deceitful words that make a mockery of justice when a judicial system detains, convicts and punishes people according to the biased and malicious opinions of security-military agencies and denies prisoners their legal rights.”

Iran Focus

London, 22 Feb – The husband of the British-Iranian charity worker held on bogus spying charges in Iran has written to the Iranian embassy in London to try to arrange a meeting with a visiting Iranian official.

Richard Ratcliffe, who has not seen his wife Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and their baby daughter, Gabriella, since the pair visited family in Iran in 2016, wants to meet with Abbas Araghchi, the deputy for legal and international affairs in Iran’s foreign ministry, in order to bring his family home.

Iran Focus

London, 22 Feb – Over 300 Sufi protesters were arrested during overnight clashes with the police in Tehran on Monday night.

The Sufi group Gonabadi, known locally as Gonabadi dervishes, held their protest in front of a police station in northern Tehran to demand the release of the members of their faith and the removal of security checkpoints around the house of their leader, Noor Ali Tabandeh.