Iran Focus
London, 1 May – Iranian workers will not “achieve their rights” unless the “clerical regime” is overthrown in Tehran, Iranian opposition leader Maryam Rajavi said in an address marking International Worker’s Day on Sunday.
UN experts worried about health of Iran’s political prisoners
Iran Focus
London, 30 Apr – Human rights experts from the United Nations have issued a warning over the fate of more than a dozen political prisoners in Iran. Aside from torture and abuse at the hands of prison guards, lawyers, activists and journalists are facing death due to the Iranian government’s refusal to provide medical treatment.
Rate of executions rising in Iran
Iran Focus
London, 30 Apr – The UK Representative of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) has said that the rate of executions is rising during Hassan Rouhani’s presidency despite his claim to ‘moderation’. In an interview with the ncr-iran.org website on Tuesday 26 April Dowlat Nowrouzi said that recent visits to Tehran by European leaders had not lead to any improvement of the human rights situation in Iran.
Iran uses medical negligence as weapon against dissidents
By Hamid Yazdan Panah
The Iranian regime employs many methods in its war against its own people. This includes torture, execution, isolation and terror. For political prisoners, incarcerated in the dungeons of the regime, one of the most difficult challenges they face is the policy of medical negligence. This policy, predicated on unsanitary living conditions, dismal medical care, and agonizing pain and isolation amounts to state sanctioned torture and in some cases death. The issue of medical negligence faced by Iranian prisoners is of growing concern for human rights organizations and activists struggling for change in Iran.
Iran sentences journalists to prison time
Iran Focus
London, 29 Apr – Four Iranian journalists and media workers received a cumulative total of 27 years jail time. David Asadi was sentenced to 10 years for gathering information, colluding to disrupt national security and having ties to foreign governments. Despite not actually being a journalist himself, Asadi is the brother of Houshang Asadi co-founder of the exiled Rooz Online opposite website. Mahmoud Alizadeh-Tabatabaee who represented three of the defendants told the state-run Tasnim News agency Saman Safarzai, who writes for the Andishey-e Puya magazine and Afarin Chitsaz, an actress and columnist, were given five year sentences. Ehsan Mazandarani, a managing-director of the Farhikhtegan newspapers received a seven year sentence.
Iran recruiting children for Syria war via video broadcast
Iran Focus
London, 28 Apr – Iran has embarked on a new propaganda campaign to recruit children to join the war in Syria, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) has reported, claiming that Tehran is “faced with a crisis in recruiting fighters to defend Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad”.
Iran: Unemployment crisis worsening
Iran Focus
Tehran, 27 Apr – Unemployment has turned into a serious crisis in Iran, state media are reporting. President Hassan Rouhani had prioritized improvement of the economy and unemployment in his agenda; however, not only has he failed to deliver on his promise but the number of unemployed, especially among the young people, has increased.
Entire adult male population of at least one Iranian village is jobless
Iran Focus
Tehran, 26 Apr – Earlier in April, state media quoted Iranian Deputy Interior Minister Morteza Mir-Bagheri as saying that some 1,200 cities were suffering from 70 percent unemployment rates. Now, reports from inside the country indicate that in one village near the northeastern Iranian city of Mashhad, the effective unemployment rate is 100 percent.
One of the women of Zeineddin village told a Fars News Agency reporter who had travelled to their village: “There is no work! Everyone is unemployed! It is two years now that our men are unemployed and have no income. All men in the village are unemployed”.
Narcotics distributed in Gohardasht Prison by Iranian officials
Iran Focus
Tehran, 26 Apr – According to local reports, the head of internal affairs in Iran’s Gohardasht Prison in Karaj, Alborz Province (north-west of Tehran), also serves as an officially-sanctioned head of the prison’s narcotics gang.
Gohardasht is one of Iran’s largest and most high-security prisons. According to accounts by former inmates, political prisoners are transferred to Gohardasht Prison specifically to be tortured and persecuted due to their perceived threat to the regime.
