Iran Focus: Tehran, Apr. 09 – The city of Mahabad (western Iranian province of Kurdistan) was placed under de facto martial law after three days of social unrest and numerous clashes between residents and agents of Iran’s State Security Forces, leaving one 13-year-old boy dead.

Iran Focus: Tehran, Apr. 09 – Iran’s Supreme Court has upheld the death sentence against a longtime political prisoner in Iran, making his execution imminent.
Hojjat Zamani, 29 years old, has been imprisoned in the notorious Evin Prison in Tehran since the year 2000 for being a member of the main Iranian opposition group, the People’s Mojahedin Organisation of Iran (PMOI).

Iran Focus: Baghdad, Apr. 09 – Two organised gangs responsible for a number of kidnappings and violent operations are run by a branch of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps, according to information obtained by sources close to the Iranian opposition People’s Mojahedin.

Iran Focus: Baghdad, Apr. 08 – Some four tons of illicit drugs imported from Iran were confiscated in the southern Iraqi city of Basra, according to an Iraqi daily. The Al-Mashreq daily wrote yesterday, “On Wednesday authorities in the southern Iraqi city of Basra announced that security forces had rounded up four tons of cannabis which had been smuggled from Iran”.

Iran Focus: Tehran, Apr. 08 – At least 1,500 anti-government protests, strikes, and clashes took place in Iran during the year that ended on March 20. More than 450 strikes, demonstrations, and gatherings by white- and blue-collar workers, were reported in state-run and opposition media.