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New Wave of Arrests in Khuzestan Province

Jubin Katiraie
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New Wave of Arrests in Khuzestan Province

According to human rights activists, Iranian authorities have launched a new wave of arrests in Khuzestan province, southwestern Iran. The human rights association No to Prison – No to Execution reported that at dawn on December 20, intelligence agents affiliated to the Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) detained Mr. Hossein Zadeh Shaye (Shenavari).

Mr. Shaye is 42 years old and from the Taleghani district in Bandar Mahshahr county. He is a cameraman and in addition to cultural activities, he was filming concerts. Mr. Shaye was also collaborating with another cultural activist Fatemeh Tamimi, who had been arrested on December 9.

Tamimi along with her partner Maryam Ameri—who was also arrested on December 10—were collecting traditional stories, lullabies, and songs in the Arabic language from local villagers. Shaye had also aided them to produce and publish these pieces on Tamimi’s Instagram page—followed by 25,000 people—to register them as part of the region’s history.

Iran: Civil Rights and Cultural Activists Arrested, Further Detentions Expected

Intelligence agents brutally raided the homes of these activists and seized their personal belongings such as laptops, smartphones, and memory cards, in addition to detaining them. To instill a sense of fear, they conducted the raid with several vehicles at Mr. Shaye’s home before dawn.

“At 4:00 am on December 20, forces of the intelligence department sieged Hossein Zadeh Shaye’s home with several vehicles. They instilled a sense of fear among this family and impounded all filming equipment, including his camera, mobile, and computer. Then, intelligence agents transferred Hossein Zadeh Shaye to Ahvaz Intelligence Department,” a source familiar with the issue said.

Mr. Shaye suffers from intestinal pain, chronic asthma, and kidney stone infection. In this context, his family is deeply concerned about his health and life regarding inhuman torture and ill-treatment usually practiced through interrogations.

The Shaye family urged international and human rights organizations to pressure the Islamic Republic to release this cultural activist immediately and unconditionally. “He is one of the advocates for Iranian Arabs in Ahvaz, who reported on these people’s suffering and misery,” said the family.

Furthermore, on December 30, the judiciary convicted Lamia (Sahba) Hemadi, 23, to seven years in prison for ‘Baghi,’ [riot] and ‘acting against national security.’ She was also a cultural activist, and the autocrats could not tolerate her activities.

In the past month, the State Security Forces (SSF) and MOIS agents have arrested a significant number of civil rights and cultural activists. They detained Azhar, Abbas, and Reza Albo-Ghabish—all of them under 20 years old—in early December, Fatemeh Tamimi on December 9, Maryam Ameri on December 10, and Zeinab Savari along with her little brother and sister on December 11.

Observers say that the Iranian government continues to intimidate society with such oppressive actions. They reasoned that given public disappointment about the government’s miserable performance in different sectors, including economic issues, civil rights, combating the novel coronavirus, and procuring the Covid-19 vaccine, the ayatollahs have intensified oppressive measures to quell any protest at the beginning.

World Must Push Iran to Procure Covid-19 Vaccines for its Citizens

Tehran Hangs Juvenile Offender On the Eve of 2021

Staff Writer
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Tehran Hangs Juvenile Offender On the Eve of 2021

In a horrible violation of human rights and international conventions, Iranian authorities executed juvenile offender Mohammad Hassan Rezaei at the Lakan Prison, in Rasht city.

Security forces arrested Rezaei 12 years ago, accusing him of murdering a man. However, in the lack of reliable evidence, interrogators severely tortured him and coerced him to accept the crime.

Afterward, Iran’s judiciary filed forced confessions as testimony and sentenced him to death. Mohammad Hassan Rezaei was the fourth juvenile offender, hanged in 2020.

Human rights activists and organizations previously expressed their concerns over the immediate execution of Rezaei. Since December 18, Amnesty International launched an urgent action, calling human rights defenders to demand Iranian authorities to suspend the death penalty.

However, the government finally transferred him to solitary confinement on Wednesday, December 30. Authorities acknowledged the Rezaei family to visit their loved one for the last time.

“After more than 12 years on death row, Mohammad Hassan Rezaei was transferred to solitary confinement in Lakan Prison in Rasht on Thursday, and his family was told that his execution would be carried out ‘in a week’. The Iranian authorities are yet again waging an abhorrent assault on children’s rights and making an absolute mockery of juvenile justice,” said Diana Eltahawy, Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International.

“Mohammad Hassan Rezaiee arrested at 16 and tortured to “confess” is hours away from execution in a prison in Rasht, Iran. The Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, President Hassan Rouhani, and Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif must halt his execution now and ensure a fair retrial in accordance with the rules of juvenile justice. #SaveHassan,”  Amnesty Iran tweeted on December 30.

“Iran is one of the last remaining countries in the world which continued to carry out executions, even for crimes committed by minors, in violation of its obligations under the International Covenant On Civil and Political Rights and Convention on the Rights of the Child,” wrote Iran Human Rights Monitor on December 31.

According to human rights defenders, the Iranian government has executed at least 257 prisoners, including political and civil rights activists, prisoners of conscience, women, juvenile offenders, and followers of religious and ethnic minorities.

The Iranian opposition extremely slammed the Iranian authorities for this execution. “A prisoner was executed today in Rasht after 13 years of imprisonment. He had been arrested at the age of 16. Continued executions in Zahedan, Sanandaj, and Urmia show that this regime cannot survive without torture and executions,” the President-elect of National Council of Resistance of Iran Maryam Rajavi tweeted, adding, “I call for urgent action to save death-row prisoners, particularly minors, whose execution is in violation of international conventions.”

Iran: Improving Citizens’ Livelihood or Stealing From the Nation

Pooya Stone
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Iran: Improving Citizens’ Livelihood or Stealing From the Nation

These days, the Iranian Parliament (Majlis) Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf prepares himself for the 2021 Presidential election. In this context, he raises ridiculous claims about people’s livelihood dilemmas and their hardship. He has claimed that the Majlis will pay attention to citizens’ problems.

“We study the 2021-22 budget bill article to article and will principally reform it in the way that benefits the people’s livelihood and our dear country,” Majlis’s official website ICANA quoted Ghalibaf as saying on December 20.

Notably, the Majlis Speaker has a notorious background in corruption and embezzlement, which forced him to resign as Tehran Mayor in 2017. Tehrani residents know him as someone who donated public estates and properties to his allies and relatives.

Iran’s Presidential Election and Intensification of Crises

In May 2017, during the Presidential campaign, Vice-President Eshaq Jahangiri shed light on Ghalibaf’s corruption cases. “Mr. Ghalibaf, have you ever known about the Ghavamin bank conditions? You established many of these credit institutions,” Jahangiri said.

Furthermore, in 1999, as the commander-in-chief of the State Security Forces (SSF), he played a leading role in the crackdown on student protests. During the 2017 Presidential debate, President Hassan Rouhani revealed Ghalibaf’s ruthless methods called ‘putting students in pipes’ to suppress protesters.

“Mr. Ghalibaf, you always planned to put [protesters] into ‘pipes.’ Every time, you were saying in the secretariat [of the National Security Supreme Council], ‘Let me put these students into pipes over two hours. If we didn’t object to you, now, all the Iranian universities would have been filled with pipes,” ILNA news agency quoted Rouhani as saying on May 12, 2017.

Ghalibaf is also proud of crimes against dissidents, including supporters of the Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK/PMOI), in the 1980s. “I’d be among club wielders on the ground if it was necessary to beat [people], and it is my pride. Since 1979 I was beating [MEK leader] Massoud Rajavi‘s supporters. We were beating them on the streets and in colleges and were stopping them. We were among Beheshti’s supporters and they were Massoud Rajavi’s. We have been club wielders on the ground since then,” Ghalibaf said in a Basij meeting in Tehran Sharif University on May 12, 2013.

Moreover, the Majlis itself is considered one of the corrupt centers, which issues ‘necessary licenses’ for plundering institutions. Several officials implicitly admit to the Majlis’s role in profiteering policies, saying, “The budget bill depends on expenditures of [official’s] loved ones.”

On December 16, the state-run Ofogh TV Channel even stepped further and bluntly blamed MPs for looting people’s belongings. “Improving the livelihood is carried out by withdrawing the nation’s savings,” the TV Channel said in a broadcast.

On the same day, Shargh daily pointed out expenditures that are supposed to be covered through people’s pockets. “The same Majlis, whose members were at the top of flu vaccine receivers’ lists and some of them were rejecting automakers’ gifted cars because the cars were not SUV-model, these MPs are supposed to receive a 1.88-trillion-rial [$7.286 million] welfare credit,” Shargh wrote on December 16.

“Thanks to the chart—published for the first time about the 2021-22 budget bill and which showed how executive organs spend credits—we obtained interesting figures about welfare expenditures of the country’s legislator apparatus. The big number belongs to the Majlis, and the Guardian Council will also spend 130 billion rials [$504,000] on welfare fields [alone],” the daily added.

Iran: 2021-22 Budget Bill and Economic Crisis

This is while MPs systematically benefit from special privileges such as a Dena+ automobile and billion rials of low-interest loans for residing in the best areas in the capital, renting an office, and hiring staff, who are usually chosen from their relatives.

Surprisingly, Ghalibaf claimed he would improve impoverished people’s livelihood while each lawmaker has received 2 billion rials [$7,750] as the housing right. Notably, this huge bonus is in addition to stellar salaries and pensions.

On the other hand, to help the budget bill gain approval, Rouhani’s government has filled MPs’ accounts with countless advantages. Rouhani grants generous privileges to MPs while many of the administration’s employees and workers, including municipal workers, have yet to receive their wages for several months. However, as people endure additional pressure due to the coronavirus consequences, the government prefers to fill MPs’ pockets.

“For five months, you did not pay my salary. As a sweeper and municipal worker, how should I respond to my family? How can I say to my children that I have no money?” a municipal worker said in a clip circulated on social media.

However, MPs’ luxury lifestyles and windfall salaries have intensified public hatred of the legislator apparatus. Many people believe that no one represents them at the Majlis and all of the ‘lawmakers’ are Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei‘s appointees and merely obey and implement his orders.

The economic gap between governors and the people they governed displays systematic corruption and officials’ abuse of power. This issue prompted officials to frequently warn each other about public ire and potential anti-establishment protests.

“Officials’ and managers’ aristocratic lives and forgetting the hardships faced by society’s low-income and needy classes are the reasons for the people’s growing economic and living dilemmas. Any kind of negligence about the future would lead the country to serious challenges,” ICANA quoted Hossein Noosh-Abadi, MP from Tehran, as saying on December 16.

Ghalibaf’s hollow gestures and Noosh-Abadi’s remarks prove the country’s fragile conditions. In reality, the Iranian government is deeply concerned about potential protests, which may end the dictatorship’s rule. Officials’ 41 years of failures and the coronavirus consequences have placed society in a volatile state, and this volcano may erupt at any moment.

IRGC Rushes for Iran’s 2021 Presidential Election

Iran: Taxi Drivers Faces $40 Million of Disadvantage Since Pandemic Began

Staff Writer
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Iran: Taxi Drivers Faces $40 Million of Disadvantage Since Pandemic Began

According to Ali Aslani, Deputy Chief of the Iranian Taxi Driver Association, from February to November, taxi drivers’ daily incomes have decreased by nearly 65 percent. He estimated that this percentage is equivalent to more than 8 trillion rials [$32 million] disadvantage for this business.

“In metropolitans, there are 123,888 taxi drivers working with an average daily income of 1.8 million rials [$7.20]. There are 296,112 others who are working in different cities with an average daily income of 1.1 million rials [$4.40],” Aslani said.

In this respect, the monthly income of a taxi driver is less than 55 million rials [$220]. Notably, these people must spend more than half of this money on gas and car maintenance expenditures.

Furthermore, the taxi driver is one of the most vulnerable careers, particularly in the coronavirus era. Due to their job conditions, they have to go onto the streets to make ends meet. In the most dangerous situation and while Covid-19 claims hundreds of lives every day, this tailor strata must continue its job with close relations with passengers.

In other words, to gain meager money, they must endure their work’s difficulties, including high prices of spare parts, worn-out cars, gas and tire prices, on the one hand, and coronavirus risks and additional expenditures of health and hygienic items and equipment on the other hand. They also must be patient under any condition.

Health and hygienic expenditures, including face masks, gloves, and protection shields that separates drivers from passengers, cost around 100,000 rials [$0.40] per day. On the other hand, drivers must pick up only one passenger at a time due to health protocols, which means another disadvantage for these strata.

This is while, the price of essential goods occasionally changes every hour, and these people must work hard to earn a meager living. In such circumstances, health measures are not a priority for them, and their main concern is how to feed their families.

On December 27, in an interview with Eqtesad Online website, Aslani provided an estimation of taxi drivers’ disadvantage during the Covid-19 pandemic. “In the past 10 months, taxi drivers suffered by exactly 8,269,921,600,000 rials [$33.08 million],” said the Deputy Chief of the Iranian Taxi Driver Association, adding, “This amount has surpassed 10 trillion rials [$40 million] until November 20.”

“Van taxi drivers dealt with the most disadvantage because their conditions are far worse than other drivers. They faced the largest decrease in income,” Aslani said.

Notably, since the emergence of Covid-19 in Iran, at least 86 taxi drivers have lost their lives to the disease only in the capital Tehran.

Iranian Nurses, Forgotten Angels

World Must Push Iran to Procure Covid-19 Vaccines for its Citizens

Mehdi Hosseini
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World Must Push Iran to Procure Covid-19 Vaccines for its Citizens

On December 27, Iranian media published Hamas Co-founder Mahmoud al-Zahar’s remarks, praising Qassem Soleimani, the former chief of the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) Quds Force. In an interview with Iran’s state-controlled Arabic language al-Alam, al-Zahar admitted that in 2006, Qassem Soleimani delivered at least $22 million in cash to him and to his assistants.

Qassem Soleimani, as the mastermind of Tehran’s terrorist activities in the Middle East and across the globe, was killed in a U.S. drone attack near the Baghdad International Airport on January 3, 2019. Soleimani’s death was an irreparable blow to the ayatollahs’ terror machine and significantly decreased Tehran’s atrocities in the Middle East despite IRGC commanders’ vows for a ‘harsh revenge.’

“My first meeting with ‘martyr’ Qassem Soleimani was after I became the Palestinian Foreign Minister in 2006. I visited several countries, including Iran. I met with my Iranian counterpart and a few other officials. Prior to my return, I also met with Mr. Qassem Soleimani,” said Mahmoud al-Zahar in his interview with al-Alam.

“The meeting with President Mahmoud [Ahmadi] Nejad was positive. I had some requests from him, and he referred me to Mr. Qassem Soleimani. In a meeting, I told [Soleimani] that our critical problem is paying our employees’ paychecks, support, and aid that we must provide,” he added.

Extension of Iran Arms Embargo Is an Imperative Act

Later, he explained how the former IRGC-QF commander immediately granted the country’s national reserves to fund a radical ally of the government. “A decision was quickly made because I had to leave the next day. I saw $22 million in cash in several suitcases at the airport. We had agreed on more, but since we were a nine-man delegation, we could not carry more due to flight instructions. There were 40 kilograms of money in each suitcase,” al-Zahar elaborated.

This is while the government frequently grumbles about U.S. sanctions and economic pressure, claiming they have paralyzed the country’s ability to purchase food and medication. However, in reality, any transaction and financial contract with Iran is merely deposited into IRGC commanders’ pockets, funneling extremist militias and funding proxy and sectarian conflicts in the region.

In the 2016 Davos session, former Secretary of State John Kerry acknowledged to CNBC that some of the money Iran received in sanctions relief would go to groups considered terrorists. “I think that some of it will end up in the hands of the IRGC or other entities, some of which are labeled terrorists,” he said in the interview in Davos on January 21, 2016.

Also, Lebanese Hezbollah’s Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah bluntly acknowledged that the Iranian government bears all Hezbollah members’ stipends and expenditures. “We are openly saying and being transparent and honest that all Hezbollah’s budget, salaries, funds, food, drink, weapons, missiles, and everything come from the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Nasrallah said in a speech aired by Hezbollah-run TV in July 2016.

In this respect, while the theocratic state has shamefully taken Iranians’ lives and health hostage for political and economic interests and delayed in procuring credible Covid-19 vaccines, the international community must keep up pressure on the ayatollahs until they stop squandering the country’s resources on terrorism and warmongering.

On December 7, a COVAX spokesperson declared that U.S. sanctions do not prohibit Tehran from purchasing vaccines and necessities to counter the health crisis. Governments must push Iranian officials to procure required doses of coronavirus vaccines immediately. This pressure would spare Iranians’ lives and health and decrease the ayatollahs’ and IRGC’s abilities to jeopardize peace and security in the region and across the globe.

Iran: Covid-19 Vaccine and Ayatollahs’ Dirty Business

Iran’s Female Breadwinners Are Fighting Losing Battle Against Deadly Poverty

Staff Writer
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Iran’s Female Breadwinners Are Fighting Losing Battle Against Deadly Poverty

Most Iranian families have been subjected to increased economic and social problems throughout 2020 because of the coronavirus outbreak, but those headed by women have suffered the most because of the government’s institutionalized gender-based discrimination.

Regardless of the virus, the gender-based harassment or discrimination they may suffer, or anything else, female heads of household must still leave their house in order to put food on the table and almost all are in need of help because they have little savings to provide a buffer during these times.

Iran: Rural Women Are the Most Marginalized People

Official Statistics of Female Breadwinners

While the authorities are eager to hide or disguise situations, leaks from inside the government report 4 million female breadwinners, likely because of increasing divorce rates.

Sociologist Amanullah Bateni advises that 71 percent of divorced women have dependent children and 90% of those would not get married again, but that absent fathers create a whole realm of problems for the families.

He said that a third of sex workers are married to a prisoner and the overwhelming cause of their problems is poverty, while 48.7 percent of female heads of household are around 60 years old, which makes it harder to get a job.

Female Breadwinners’ Employments

The most common jobs for female breadwinners involve cooking, making pastry, pickling, packaging, carpet-weaving, teaching, personal care, and tailoring, but many of these were affected by the pandemic, as a result of knock-on economic problems and fewer people at markets.

“Especially for women who make food or handicrafts from home, the current health protocols have caused an increase in costs and a decrease in customers,” said Mojtaba Naji, the Social Affairs Deputy of Isfahan’s Welfare Department.

While Somayeh Ghasemi Tusi, Deputy of Women’s and Family Affairs in Mazandaran Governorate, said:  “There are 800 active kindergartens in Mazandaran province with 8,000 female employees. About 30-40 percent of these women are heads of household and are negatively affected by the closure of kindergartens.”

Female Peddlers in Iran Risking Death

One of the biggest problems, caused by the mullahs’ discriminatory laws that means many girls are marrying and having kids before they finish education, is low levels of education for women, leading to jobs that are part-time, uninsured, and with little in the way of benefits. These women are the first to go during hard economic times.

In addition, the government has not helped, providing only a meager amount of welfare that is far below the poverty line. Most female heads of household are fighting with deadly poverty and face attack from the regime’s agents. No wonder they are now facing a huge amount of mental and physical problems.

Iranian Nurses, Forgotten Angels

Hoshang Amiri
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Iranian Nurses, Forgotten Angels

Ten months after the emergence of the novel coronavirus in Iran, fatalities have surpassed around 190,000 people, according to the Iranian opposition Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK/PMOI).

Governments all over the world are severely competing to gain more Covid-19 vaccines to rescue their people. Many officials believe that medical staff who provide invaluable services in combating the health crisis must be the first receivers of vaccines.

However, in Iran, the situation is completely different. Not only is there no news about vaccination, but the government has yet to provide essential equipment for medical staff.

In this respect, many healthcare workers have contracted the Covid-19, which dramatically has decreased the country’s medical staff on the one hand and exerted additional pressures on their colleagues on the other.

“Of the roughly 145,000 nurses across the country around 60,000 have contracted Covid-19 and 6,000 are in quarantine,” said Mohammad Mirzabeigi, head of Iran’s Nursing Apparatus Organization, on December 17.

Nurses in Iran Are Overworked, Underpaid, and Getting Sick

Ten days earlier, Maryam Hazrati, deputy of nursing affairs in the Health Ministry, warned about overwhelming pressure on nurses. “Around 40,000 nurses across the country have contracted Covid-19 and are now in quarantine. With their loss pressure on the remaining nurses has increased significantly,” the semi-official ISNA news agency quoted her as saying on December 7.

Furthermore, authorities’ mismanagement has caused the death of a considerable number of these selfless people. On December 18, in an interview with the official IRNA news agency, Alireza Zali, the head of the Covid-19 Task Force, confirmed the death of 46 healthcare workers in Tehran and 200 in other provinces.

Health professionals also expressed their concerns over the mental and physical conditions of medical staff. “After nine months of bad working, mental, and physical conditions, more than 50 percent of nurses in the ICU section have contracted the coronavirus, 20 percent of which have been hospitalized in the ICU section themselves. This is a disaster,” said Alireza Sedaghat, head of the ICU department in Mashhad’s Imam Reza hospital, on November 12.

On the other hand, the ayatollahs’ terrible policies led many nurses and physicians to take refuge in other countries. “Negligence toward nurses’ demands diminishes their motivation… and in some cases, these indifferencies lead nurses to migrate from the country. In the long run, this issue would exacerbate the crisis of shortage of nurses in the country,” Abdollah Safari, deputy chief of the Nursing Organization, said in an interview with Mashreq News website on December 17.

Nurses’ emigration would sink the country to more dilemmas. Particularly, when the government faces a shortage of medical staff. “One of the main severe shortages we are facing is in the number of nurses. We do not even have one nurse for each hospital bed while the global standard is 2.5 nurses for each bed. Even in developing countries, this number is higher than two,” said the head of Iran’s Supreme Nursing Council Samsoddin Shamsi on December 14.

Iran’s Doctors and Nurses Are Victims of the Regime’s Indifference to the Coronavirus

In this respect, the ayatollahs’ mismanagement not only pressures these selfless people but endangers the country’s future by reducing Iran’s valuable human resources. Moreover, while the government does not pay nurses’ arrears and delayed paychecks, it is unlikely to provide necessary items for medical apparatuses and improve the country’s health department. In this respect, like other sectors of society, medical staff grasped that protests are the sole way to achieve their inherent rights.

Iran Media Warns of Protests Over Crises

Staff Writer
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Iran Media Warns of Protests Over Crises

The state-run media is continuing to warn about a protest by the people because of the government’s failure to mitigate the growing crises there, including poverty, inflation, and Covid-19.

Iran: Covid-19 Vaccine and Ayatollahs’ Dirty Business

On December 19, Hamdeli daily wrote that the poverty line was now 100 million rials [approximately $400], according to the Central Bank of Iran (CBI). However, most workers are struggling to earn even a quarter of that, at the same time that social security has removed 70 and 80 medicines from its books, meaning Iranians will have to pay out of pocket.

Meanwhile, the semi-official ILNA news agency and Siyasat-e Rouz outlet discussed the rising costs of food, with many unable to afford meat. Poultry has increased in price by 26.2 percent, while the meat is up 13 percent and rice 9.2 percent.

One of the things exacerbating the economic disaster is the coronavirus outbreak, which the government is also doing little about as the death toll reached 193,300 on Monday, December 28.

In fact, the government not only tried to cover up the virus at the start to ensure higher turnout at the election and the anniversary parades, which were boycotted for entirely different reasons.

However, they even described it as a “divine blessing” because they figured it would stop the kind of mass protest that could see them thrown from power.

Iran Supreme Leader Calls Coronavirus a “Blessing” 

The government has even refused to procure foreign vaccines, with officials including President Hassan Rouhani and CBI Chief Abdolnasser Hemmati, blaming it on sanctions.

Geneva-based Gavi, which is one of three groups involved in the COVAX payment facility for coronavirus vaccine purchases, said that there is no “legal barrier” to Iran buying vaccines. Even Nasser Riahi, the head of the Iranian Drug Importers’ Union, told Sepid daily that Iran could buy the vaccine and that officials’ claims were “not true.”

As a result, “#BuyVaccine” became a trending hashtag on Iranian Twitter on Sunday, according to the Sharq daily.

It should come as no surprise that there is “public distrust” in the government, as Arman daily wrote Monday because contradictory remarks by officials have weakened what little trust there was.

“Many countries have begun mass vaccination… Meanwhile, we in Iran are still waiting for some good news about vaccines’ possibility of entering Iran. All this means that we will face more victims,” Shargh daily wrote on December 22.

“Why should our people and medical staff be so deprived of these vaccines? When it comes to the people’s lives, why do our politicians not want to change their wrong policies a little so that maybe the lives of the people of this country will be saved? Is the life of our people worthless?” Shargh daily added.

Iranian Authorities File New Charges Against Political Prisoner Soheil Arabi

Shahin Mahmoudi
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Iranian Authorities File New Charges Against Political Prisoner Soheil Arabi

Iranian authorities once again filed a new accusation against political prisoner Soheil Arabi. Following a period of ignoring this political prisoner’s fate, on December 23, he was informed of the new charges through a video conference at Shahr-e Rey court.

According to reports provided by the human and civil rights advocate website fa.iranfreedom.org, Judiciary officials from Branch 8 of Shahr-e Rey jurisdiction accused Soheil Arabi of propaganda against the state. This is while since 2015, Arabi has had no access to outside the prison and has not been afforded furlough even during the coronavirus pandemic.

For One Month There Was No News About Soheil Arabi

On September 18, Soheil Arabi was suddenly summoned to the bureau of Tehran Greater Penitentiary warden Chaharmahali. Then, the prison guard transferred him to an unknown place. After many follow-ups by his families, authorities acknowledged that Soheil Arabi had been transferred to the quarantine ward called ‘Suite’ at Karaj’s Raja’i Shahr Prison, in Alborz province.

Eventually, contrary to authorities’ false information, Soheil Arabi called his family from Evin Prison’s Ward 2A on October 20. Notably, this ward is controlled by the Intelligence Department of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). Prisoners are exposed to inhuman torture and other ill-treatment by cruel interrogators like Raouf and Sattar.

Later, on November 17, authorities finally transferred Arabi to Raja’i Shahr Prison, Ward 4 – Hall 10. Simultaneously, this political prisoner faced new allegations by the IRGC Intelligence Department. Due to his revelation about Tehran Greater Penitentiary‘s awful conditions, particularly during the coronavirus era, authorities filed new accusations under the pretense of ‘propaganda against the state.’

Torturing and Harassing Prisoners

Furthermore, Soheil Arabi was subjected to torture time and again by prison guards at Tehran Greater Penitentiary. Under the warden’s supervision, the guards repeatedly attacked, tortured, and harassed this political prisoner.

During an assault, Soheil Arabi was harmed in the testicles, and attackers broke his nose. Authorities deprived him of medical care. Since then, he cannot breathe easily.

Iranian Political Prisoner Sent Back to Prison From IRGC Detention Center

International Appeals for Releasing Soheil Arabi

On October 17, Amnesty International expressed its concerns about Soheil Arabi’s condition and unclear fate. “Prisoner of conscience Soheil Arabi was transferred out of Greater Tehran Central Penitentiary on September 18, 2020. Prison officials have told his family he is now held in Raja’i Shahr prison, Karaj, but Soheil Arabi has had no contact with the outside world since his transfer,” Amnesty tweeted.

Also, Amnesty International mentioned the risks of torture against this prisoner, adding, “This raises fears that Soheil Arabi may be at risk of torture or other ill-treatment since he has had no contact with the outside world in nearly one month. The denial of all contact is also causing Soheil Arabi’s family great alarm.”

Moreover, Amnesty called on Iranian authorities to release Soheil Arabi immediately and unconditionally. “The Iranian authorities must immediately and unconditionally release Soheil Arabi. Pending this, he must be protected from torture and other ill-treatment, provided urgently with any medical care he may require, and given access to his family and a lawyer of his choosing,” Amnesty wrote on its Twitter account which follows developments in Iran.

In flagrant defiance of international appeals for improving human rights conditions in Iran and releasing political prisoners, prisoners of conscience, and followers of ethnic and religious minorities, the judiciary has opened a new case against Soheil Arabi. Opposition activists say the international community should not remain idle regarding this shameless act by the world’s record holder of executions per capita. It is time for the civilized world to pressure Iranian authorities to respect their people’s fundamental rights.

November Protesters’ Lives in Danger in Iran Prison 

Tehran Plans to Execute Gamblers

Jubin Katiraie
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Tehran Plans to Execute Gamblers

In a new blow to Iranians’ human rights, particularly the right to life, Iranian authorities plan to hang people on gambling-related charges. On December 26, deputy chair of the Parliament (Majlis) Judicial Commission Hassan Nowruzi acknowledged that the Majlis Judicial Commission has recently drafted a bill to confront gambling websites’ admins.

“This plan considers the death penalty for gambling-related offenders due to ‘corruption on earth,’” Nowruzi said in an interview with Fars news agency, affiliated to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), on December 26.

Execution Is the Dictatorship’s Sole Response to Society’s Dilemmas

Earlier, the State Security Forces (SSF) announced that it had detained ten citizens on gambling-related charges. Colonel Mostafa Nowruzi, chief of the SSF Center for Combating National and Organized Cyber Crimes, reported this news during a press conference. (The two Nowruzis are not related.)

On the other hand, the deputy chair of the Majlis Judicial Commission reckoned that the new plan was in accordance with the Islamic Republic’s Penal Code. “Recently, MPs submitted a plan titled, ‘The Expansion of Articles 705 to 711 of the Islamic Penal Code’s Fifth Book,’ to the presidium. The plan has expanded gambling punishments to gambling in cyberspace,” Hassan Nowruzi said.

“The plan consists of restrict punishments for groups and gangs. In the case of repetition and persistence on crime and non-repenting, judges can issue the death sentence against gamblers and bettors for ‘corruption on earth’ even if they acted in the form of groups or gangs,” the deputy chair added.

Furthermore, Hassan Nowruzi announced that the government and the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) must take necessary actions to counter ‘corruption.’ This is while almost all sensitive administrative apparatuses, including the judiciary, the CBI, and the government, are drowned in unbridled corruption.

“The corruption looks like a seven-head dragon. Once we cut one of its heads, it keeps moving with other heads,” said the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in February 2018. All the while, Khamenei himself manages a multi-billion trade that included eight giant economic conglomerates.

Iran’s Supreme Leader, Main Figure Behind Regime Corruption

“According to the plan, the government is tasked with performing several actions through the CBI. It must deal mercilessly with different types of corruption by bettors. In this respect, the CBI has been tasked with prohibiting these people from misusing the country’s economic and financial system. The plan has also considered several duties for the ministries of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and Interior Affairs, as well as Cyber Police, Justice Department, and Judiciary,” Hassan Nowruzi said.

The growth of gambling activities, particularly in cyberspace, is a direct outcome of the government’s economic mismanagement. In other words, the people, whose meager incomes have dried up due to poverty and unemployment, see gambling as an instrument to feed their families.

However, the government continues to restrict people’s access to the internet due to its weakness in conquering cyberspace.

Iran: Systematic Corruption May Ignite New Wave of Protests

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