Iran Focus
London, 30 May – This weekend was a terrible blow for internet rights and freedom of speech in Iran.
Firstly, the totalitarian Iranian government has given international social media sites a one-year deadline to hand over all data related to Iranian citizens, if they wish to continue operating within Iran. Then Iran’s cyber police arrested a 15-year-old who planned to start a channel on a social networking site.
Iran Focus
London, 30 May – Five Iranian prisoners are awaiting sentences of blinding or deafening with acid; a punishment allowed under the regime’s fundamentalist law of retribution.
The men are being held in Iran’s notorious Gohardasht Prison in Karaj, north-west of Tehran.
Iran Focus
London, 29 May – Struan Stevenson, President of the European Iraqi Freedom Association and a former Conservative MEP for Scotland, said in The Scottish Herald on Thursday, 26 May, that Iran’s appalling human rights record and their financial support to terrorists should be a cause of concern for other world leaders.
Iran Focus
Tehran, 28 May – Former employees of Behshahr oil drilling company, situated in northern Iran, held a rally on Wednesday, May 25, in front of the building that houses the office of the regime’s local Governor. The gathering drew a crowd of 150 workers to protest against their dismissal and demanding an investigation into their situation.
Iran Focus
London, 27 May – Iran’s so-called morality police have flogged 35 young men and women for attending a mixed-gender party after their graduation ceremony, it was announced on Thursday, 26 May.
The party was held in Qazvin, 140 km north-west of Tehran.
Iran Focus
London, 27 May – Iranian authorities have flogged 17 men who had protested the loss of their jobs.
The men were sentenced to between 30 and 100 lashes each; they also had to serve time in prison and pay a fine.
Iran Focus
London, 27 May – Fourteen prisoners were executed at prisons in the Iranian city of Karaj this week. Eleven were executed on Wednesday 25 May in Gohardasht Prison; one of whom is believed to have been a minor at the time of his alleged offence. A further three prisoners were executed on Tuesday at Qezelhesar Prison.
Iran Focus
London, 27 May – A leader from an Iranian teachers’ union has warned the BBC of the campaigns of harassment and imprisonment they face at the hands of the Iranian government.
Iran Focus
London, 27 May – Ninety-year-old Ahmad Jannati has been named the new head of Iran’s Assembly of Experts. Jannati is a close confidant of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei and also sits as chairman of the Guardian Council – a body that approves all parliamentary laws. His appointment was confirmed when he received 51 of the 88 votes cast by other members of the Assembly of Experts.
Iran Focus
London, 24 May – This week marks the 44th anniversary of the execution of the founders of Iran’s main opposition group.
On 25 May 1972, the founders and leaders of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI or MEK), were executed by death squads after months of imprisonment and torture from the regime of the Shah.
