The Independent: A teenage girl with a mental age of eight is facing the death penalty for prostitution in Iran. The trial comes only four months after the hanging of another mentally ill girl for sex before marriage in a case that has prompted a human rights lawyer to prepare a charge of wrongful execution against the presiding judge.
Mentally-ill girl who was sold for sex faces death penalty in Iran
Teenage sex slave sentenced to death
Daily Telegraph: A 19-year-old Iranian girl with a mental age of eight who was forced into prostitution by her mother has been sentenced to be flogged and executed for ‘morality-related’ offences, Amnesty International said yesterday. The human rights pressure group has asked Iran’s supreme court to stay the execution. The girl, named only as Leyla M, had suffered a “litany of abuse”, it said.
Hardliners cement power in Iran, nuclear ambitions worry world
AFP: Iran’s Islamic regime remained at the centre of international concerns in 2004 by pressing on with a suspect nuclear programme, testing new ballistic missiles, ousting reformists from office and clamping down on dissent. After an often turbulent experiment with reforms, powerful hardliners marked the Islamic republic’s 25th anniversary by barring allies of President Mohammad Khatami from standing in February’s parliamentary elections on the grounds of their questionable loyalty to the regime.
Clashes in northern Iran leave scores injured, security vehicles destroyed
Iran Focus: Tehran, Dec. 13 – Workers and local residents in the northern Iranian city of Amol clashed with the security forces, leaving scores injured and a number of security vehicles destroyed. Workers from Amol’s Textile Factory demonstrated outside the local governor’s office after the factory claimed bankruptcy whilst owing the workers back-pay …
Clashes in northern Iran leave scores injured, security vehicles destroyed
Iran Focus: Tehran, Dec. 13 – Workers and local residents in the northern Iranian city of Amol clashed with the security forces, leaving scores injured and a number of security vehicles destroyed. Workers from Amol’s Textile Factory demonstrated outside the local governor’s office after the factory claimed bankruptcy whilst owing the workers back-pay …
Iran nuke talks launched
Reuters: Three European powers and Iran have begun talks
on a long-term agreement on nuclear, economic and security cooperation with both sides seeking to build trust amid continuing suspicion over Tehran’s atomic programme. The meeting between Iranian negotiator Hassan Rohani, the foreign ministers of Britain, France and Germany and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana followed Iran’s agreement last month to suspend activities that could help make a
nuclear bomb.
Iran: Girl With Mental Age of Eight Given Death Sentence After Mother Forced Her Into Prostitution F
Amnesty International: A 19-year old girl, Leyla M, who has a mental
age of eight, reportedly faces imminent execution for morality-related offences after being forced into prostitution by her mother as a child. According to a Tehran newspaper report of 28 November, she was sentenced to death by a court in the central Iranian city of Arak and the sentence has now been passed to the Supreme Court for confirmation.
Iran parliament launches probe into reformist culture ministry
AFP: Iran’s conservative-held parliament has decided to investigate the activities of the ministry of culture and Islamic guidance, one of the few institutions still run by reformers, the official news agency IRNA reported Monday. According to the report, deputies in the parliament’s culture committee …
Iran government voices concern over journalist ‘confessions’
AFP: Iran’s reformist government admitted Monday that it was concerned over how the hardline judiciary managed to exact written apologies and confessions from several detained dissident journalists. “People making statements that go against their convictions cannot win the confidence of public opinion and raise questions,” government spokesman Abdollah Ramazanzadeh told journalists.
Former head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards announces bid for presidency
AFP: The former head of Iran’s hardline Revolutionary Guards, Mohsen Rezai, announced on Monday that he will stand in presidential elections scheduled for mid-2005. “People need candidates who are efficient as well as politically serious,” Rezai told a news conference, adding that he had “clear plans for management and solving people’s problems.”
