By Pooya Stone
A Tehran Revolutionary Court has upheld a 30-year prison sentence, as well as 111 lashes, against human rights lawyer Amirsalar Davoudi, who has defended several political activists.
Davoudi’s lawyer Mostafa Turk Hamedani tweeted the news on July 30.
By Jubin Katiraie
Amnesty International has released a statement condemning the flogging of Kurdish singer and prisoner of conscience Peyman Mirzazadeh, who is currently being held in Urmia prison in Iran, saying that the 100-lash sentence shows the “shocking brutality” of Iran’s justice system.
By Pooya Stone
The US sanctioned Iran’s foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Wednesday, describing him as the “propaganda arm” of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who hinted at potential sanctions last month, said: “Javad Zarif implements the reckless agenda of Iran’s supreme leader and is the regime’s primary spokesperson around the world.”
By Jubin Katiraie
Four female political prisoners were brutally attacked by regular inmates, who were incited by prison officials, in Qarchak Prison, also known as Shahr-e Ray Prison, in Iran, on Monday, July 29 at about 7 pm.
One of the prisoners who attacked Yasaman Ariani, Neda Naji, Atefeh Rangriz, and Sepideh Qolian, had recently been released from a mental hospital and was referred to in some reports as “deranged”.
By Pooya Stone
Iranian rail workers have continued their strike action this week by blocking the tracks that link the port of Bandar Abbas in Hormozgan Province by the Persian Gulf to the capital Tehran for two consecutive days on Monday and Tuesday.
The state-run ILNA news agency said that rail workers are on strike to protest that their wages have not been paid in three months.
By Jubin Katiraie
A water official in Sistan and Baluchestan Province said yesterday that over half of the villages in the poverty-stricken southeastern province lacked water supply networks.
Abdolahad Rigi, the head of the Sistan and Baluchestan Rural Water and Sewage Company, told the semi-official ILNA News Agency that 2,868 villages in the province, out of a total of 5,594, did not have water supply networks.
By Pooya Stone
Amnesty International has released a statement condemning the recent comments by a senior Iranian official defending the 1988 prison massacres and pointing out that the comments confirm that the regime has been breaking international human rights laws for over 30 years and give a sense of the sense of impunity those involved have been enjoying.
By Jubin Katiraie
Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) announced that it has “demolished” a network of all-female “western-style” parties in Hamadan, western Iran.
The IRGC forces in Hamadan, which is the ancient city of Ecbatana, did not divulge the exact location of the parties, the numbers of guests arrested, or what has happened to those still held in prison. They only said that 20 of the detainees were released after being disciplined, lectured, and guided to the “right path”. It is not known whether disciplined in this case refers to a warning or some sort of corporal punishment.
By Pooya Stone
The US has increased diplomatic pressure on Germany to join efforts to protect the Strait of Hormuz from Iranian threats after Iran seized a British oil tanker earlier this month.
US embassy spokeswoman Tamara Sternberg-Greller said in a statement: “We’ve formally asked Germany to join France and the UK to help secure the Strait of Hormuz and combat Iranian aggression. Members of the German government have been clear that freedom of navigation should be protected… Our question is, protected by whom?”
By Jubin Katiraie
Recently, an internal source in Iran disclosed a series of details about a mastermind, plotter, and operator of recent attacks against oil tankers in Gulf of Oman. Details explain that the IRGC’s forces shifted missiles widely in southern Iranian coasts to target foreign interests for lift the spirits of IRGC, after its blacklisting by the U.S.
