Iran Focus
Brussels, 20 Jul – EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini announced the lifting of “multilateral and national” sanctions on Iran on 16 January this year, saying the nuclear deal showed that intense diplomacy could resolve even “the most difficult issues”. However, this new position came despite the EU sanctions still imposed on Tehran due to its poor human right record and links with terrorist organizations.
Iran Focus
Geneva, 20 Jul – The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has released an update on the Iranian refugees stuck in Camp Liberty in Iraq.
This update focuses on how well solutions have been put in place to aid refugees in this area, specifically in terms of relocation.
Over 1,700 residents have been relocated to safe countries, which accounts for over half of the original refugees. The UNHCR hopes to have moved all residents out of Iraq before the end of 2016 with a combination of international efforts and middle-eastern movements.
Iran Focus
Berlin, 20 Jul – An Iranian Intelligence Agent has been convicted in Germany of spying on Iranian Resistance members living abroad.
The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) has welcomed this conviction of the Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) agent and has urged foreign governments to prosecute and expel other regime spies.
Iran Focus
Brussels, 19 Jul – More than 90 Belgian Politicians on today, 19 July, called for relations with Iran to be predicated on an improvement in their human rights situation.
In a video of the remarks by Dirk Claes, Mayor of Rotselaar, Honorary Senator, and President of Belgian Committee of Parliamentarians and Mayors for a Democratic Iran, we hear about the Belgian peoples’ concern over human rights violations in Iran, which have degenerated under the regime of President Hassan Rouhani. Under this so-called ‘moderate’ leader, women are being ever more repressed, and journalists have been sent to prison, among many other abuses.
London, 19 Jul – In an article for The Diplomat on Tuesday, Lord Ken Maginnis argued that the Iranian Resistance, in the shape of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), is building significant momentum against the regime in Tehran.
Reflecting on both the absence of moderation in the regime and the abundance of it in the opposition led by Maryam Rajavi, Lord Maginnis called on Western governments to re-think strategy towards Iran.
Iran Focus
Tehran, 18 Jul – Iran hanged 18 prisoners, this past weekend; with 16 executions on Sunday alone.
Eleven prisoners were hanged in Qezelhesar Prison in Karaj, north-west of Tehran, on Sunday, but only two have been identified; Saeed Saberi and Moslem Bahrami. The charges have not been specified but at least one member of this group was a woman.
Two men were hanged on Sunday, in a public square in the city’s Mehshahr District, according to the state-run Tasnim news agency. They have only been identified by their initials Q. J. and M. R.
Iran Focus
Washington, 18 Jul – The United States’ Senate Committee on Foreign Relations voted unanimously last week to back a resolution regarding the rights of Iranian exiles living in Camp Liberty in Iraq.
The exiles are members of Iranian opposition group, the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI or MEK), who have been designated a protected group of people by the United Nations for the discrimination and violence that they face.
Iran Focus
Tehran, 18 Jul – In the last six weeks, two cases have illustrated the continuing intrusion by the regime into the private space of Iranians. On July 6, 80 Afghan nationals were arrested and deported “for dancing” at a village celebration. On May 26, 35 students were sentenced to flogging for attending a mixed graduation party, a case which also served to underline the draconian enforcement of gender apartheid by the regime.
Iran Focus
London, 18 Jul – Amnesty International released a report on Monday which found that Iranian political prisoners are routinely denied adequate medical care.
The report, Health taken hostage: Cruel denial of medical care in Iran’s prisons, shows that Iranian authorities, particularly the Office of the Prosecutor, and prison administrations, refuse to provide adequate medical care for political prisoners, whether they are stricken with a terminal illness or suffering from the beatings and torture inflicted by the prison guards.
Washington, 17 Jul – Atena Farghadani drew a cartoon mocking Iran’s parliament in protest of her country’s anti-birth control policies. For this, she was arrested by the Revolutionary Guard in the summer of 2014.
In her July 15 interview with Michael Cavna of the Washington Post, after she was released from prison, the Iranian artist says: “I’m stuck in a limbo.” referring to the mental weariness and the physical problems caused by her imprisonment. “At the moment,” she continues, “since I’ve arrived at the certainty that there is miracle lying in the art of drawing and painting, I’m more determined to continue doing it than ever.”
