Iran Focus
Tehran, 27 Jul – Thousands of Iranian Azeris took to the streets on July 26 to protest insulting comments made about their community in the state-run daily Tarhe-No.
Iran’s largest ethnic minority protested across Iran’s Eastern and Western Azerbaijan provinces. In Tabriz, thousands gathered in Darayi Street and chanted slogans.
Iran Focus
London, 26 Jul – On the anniversary of the massacre of some 30,000 political prisoners in Iran, July 26, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) looks back on the events that led to tens of thousands of political prisoners held in jails across Iran being summarily and extra-judicially executed in 1988.
“There are strong indications that Khomeini’s fatwa, which led to the massacre of some 30,000 political prisoners in Iran, was issued on July 26, 1988”, according to the NCRI.
Iran Focus
London, 26 Jul – An Iranian Christian woman held in the infamous Evin Prison since July 15, 2013, has now spent over three weeks on a hunger strike.
Maryam Zargaran, who has been denied release despite her developing Multiple Sclerosis and long-term heart condition began her second hunger strike on July 5 protesting the treatment she has received in prison. Reports say that she has become very weak. After their recent visit, Zargaran’s family said that she refuses to receive treatment at the prison clinic because staff mistreat her there.
Iran Focus
Paris, 26 Jul – Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, condemned the terrorist attack on a church in northern France and the murder of its elderly priest.
In a statement on July 26, she called this atrocity, “barbaric” and “cowardly”, and described it as being “in diametric contrast to the teachings of all major religions and humane values.”
Iran Focus
London, 25 Jul – The UK released a Human Rights Priority Country update report in which the UK’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office said that in the last six months the human rights situation in Iran has only gotten worse.
The report based on the period January to June 2016 was published on July 21.
It states: “In many respects, the situation has worsened, despite President Rouhani pledging to improve the rights and freedoms of the citizens of Iran when he was elected.”
Iran Focus
Tehran, 25 Jul – Iranian officials arrested 150 young people for attending a mixed-gender birthday party in Islamshahr, near Tehran.
In a statement given to the regime-affiliated news agency, Tasnim, on July 25, Colonel Mohsen Khancherli, the regime’s police commander for the west of Tehran Province, said: “After we obtained a report about a mixed-gender party in a garden in the vicinity of Islamshahr in the west of Tehran Province, an operation was carried out by the police and another organization, leading to the arrest of dozens of boys and girls.”
Iran Focus
London, 25 Jul – Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir made a speech highlighting Iran’s sponsorship of terrorist organisations at an event about terrorism held by the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Brussels on 21 July.
Al-Jubeir’s statement, broadcast on Al-Arabiya, was made in response to comments from the Iranian Consul General that Saudi Arabia had sent terrorists to Iran and stated: “Iran did not say anything that is based in fact”.
Iran Focus
London, 25 Jul – The authorities in Iran destroyed 100,000 satellite dishes and receivers as part of a crackdown against the banned devices.
State media agency, Basij News, reported that the destruction ceremony took place on Sunday, June 24, in the presence of General Mohammad Reza Naghdi, head of the Iranian regime’s Basij militia.
Naghdi warned of the terrible impact that satellite television has on society’s morals.
Iran Focus
24 Jul – Authorities in Iran have arrested at least 50 young men and women who attended a mixed-gender party.
“Families must be more vigilant regarding their children to make sure they do not end up in such circumstances”, says Mojtaba Vahedi, the head of the judiciary in Damavand, east of Tehran.
A report on Friday, July 22, by the state-run Tasnim news agency said more than 50 young men and women were arrested at a party that was organized via social networking.
Iran Focus
London, 22 Jul – Reuters reported on Thursday that the Kingdom of Bahrain has uncovered and dismantled an Iranian-linked cell plotting attacks on its territory. Five suspects were arresting after bomb-making materials, guns, and knives were discovered in their homes.
According to a statement by Bahrain’s interior ministry, the five men had received military training in Iran and Iraq. On Friday, The Asharq Al-Awsat reported that they men were members of a terrorist cell linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) and the Iraqi Hezbollah, who received intensive training in terrorist activities at the camps. They were captured two weeks ago by Bahraini Security Forces in a preemptive strike.
