Iranian authorities approved death of Teacher

Death sentence of a Kurdish dissident teacher, Farzad Kamangar has been approved by Iranian authorities.

Alireza Jamshidi spokesman of the Judiciary announced on 27 May 2007, that Mr.Kamangar has been charged for membership in a terrorist organization, and with holding explosives.

According to Jamshidi, Farzad Kamangar, Ali Heydarian, Farhad Vakili have been announced to be "moharebs"(rebels against God) and sentenced to death.

The three human right activists had been arrested during a trip to Tehran in August of 2006.

The 36^th so called revolutionary court, sentenced Mr.Kamangar , after 19 months detention, to death for being a member of the PKK (Kurdish Workers Party).

After his sentence was delivered, Mr. Kamangar in a letter smuggled out, revealed that he had been tortured physically and mentally in the Intelligence Ministry detention centre. He had been tied to a bed and tortured and threatened to be raped.

Human right activists have already announced that Mr. Kamangar has been transferred twice to the prison clinic because of severe conditions resulting from torture.

Prior to this, Khalil Bahramian, and Mr. Kamangars' attorney had announced that they believe Mr.Kamangars' case is only a result of prejudice on Kurdish nationalists. He had rejected all accusations against his client.

Mr. Khalil Bahramian had also declared that his client has no knowledge whatsoever of explosives mentioned to have been found in his car. He had asserted that the aforementioned explosives had been implanted in his car in Tehran.

Teachers of Kamyaran province have collected a petition in support of the release of their colleague Farzad Kamangar. In their petition they have born witness to the fact that Mr.Kamangar has always been a law abiding citizen, and demanded the death sentence be annulled.

Farzad Kamangar has been a teacher in the Kamyaran province art college in Kurdistan. He was a member of the teachers' association, the environmentalists of Asak (meaning deer) . He was also a known writer in the monthly "Royan" of the Ministry of Education.

A Kurdish student is charged for supporting opposition party

Yasser Goli a Kurdish student, who was arrested in front of his University, in October 2007 in Sanandaj by the Intelligence Ministry agents, was trialed by the so called evolutionary court of Sanandaj.

Mr. Nemat Ahmadi, attorney to Yasser Goli who was present at the trial, said his client has been charged with attempting against national security by supporting the PJAK (Kurdish armed group opposed to Tehran, situated in military camps of the mountainous region between Turkey and Iran.)

According to Mr.Ahmadi, Yasser Goli has denied all the charges against him in the court.

Mr.Goli is the former General Secretary of the Democratic Union of Kurdish Students.

He was dined his scholarship by direct orders of the Intelligence Ministry.

Heshmatollah Tabarzadi is released

A journalist and director of a political organization critical of the Islamic Republic – the Democratic front of Iran- Mr.Heshmatollah Tabarzadi has been released after finishing seven years prison sentence from Evin prison on May 25 .

The democratic United Students' Front – a member of the Democratic Front, has announced that Mr.Tabarzadi had announced that officials had given no official reasons his detention.

It is reported that Mr.Tabarzadi has been told that his other sentence by the court which is 10 years of deprivation of social rights, would start on his release.

Mr.Tabarzadi, director of the confiscated Payam Daneshjoo publication, who had been repeatedly arrested in the past, was sentenced to 14 years imprisonment in July of 2003.

The 26^th so called revolutionary court had sentenced Mr.Tabarzadi to 10 years prison, for founding the Democratic Front, two years for insulting the Spiritual Leader, one year for propagating against the State, one year for disturbing public opinion, and an extra 10 years punishment of social deprivation.

The appeal court shortened the sentence to 7 years on the whole.

Political prisoner double trialed for "insulting Islamic scared s"

Hamidreza Mohammadi, who has been sentenced to 6 years imprisonment by the 13^th Branch of the so called revolutionary courts on 20 June 2006 , is sentenced to another 5 years.

His second court was held to prosecute him on charges of "insulting Islamic sacreds" for an extra 5 year imprisonment.

Mr.Mohammadi was charged to have stamped the word "Invalidated", on all pages of the 7 editions of the Koran and having sent them to Islamic institutes.

Prior to this, Mr.Mohammadi had been charged with membership in a group called the Iranian kingship association for 6 years imprisonment.

Mr. Mohammadi declares that he has been charged and sentenced twice for one case, without the presence of a lawyer.

In the begging of his arrest he had spent 6 months in the 209 section and then was transferred to the public ward of Evin prison. Government agents had arrested his family at the time of his arrest.

Mr.Mohammadi has committed suicide twice, not withstanding psychological and physical pressures in 209.

Death of a political prisoner in Western Iran

A Kurdish political activist, Kaveh Azizpour has dies in a hospital in west Iran, after undergoing a double operation, on 16 May 2008. He was reported top have been severely tortured in a so called detention centre.

His relatives have reported that Mr.Azizpour had more than a dozen heart attacks while being interrogated by the Intelligence Ministry agents, and had been unconscious in the hospital for 20 days.

Assad Azizpour , the victims brother has reported that the last operation was carried on his brothers brain because of an attack in which he went into a coma. Evidently Mr.Azizpour was dragged out of hospital by the Ministry agents immediately 48 hours after the operation, while ignoring the medical staff's warnings about Mr.Azizpours situation, only to be interrogated once again.

Assad Azizpour insisted that, the doctors had made it clear to the authorities that any transfer of Kaveh Azizpour , before his 2 month period of rehabilitation, would be fatal for him.

Mr.Aizizpours charges are said to be: collaboration with a Kurdish dissident group.

Prior to this, 25 year old Kaveh, had been arrested in January 2006, in connection with dissident Kurdish groups, by the Mahabad Intelligence Offices and had been imprisoned.

In January 2006, the Organization in defense of Human Rights in Kurdistan, had announced that Kaveh Azizpour and his brother, Assad Azizpour had been arrested in a clash between habitants of the "Daryass" village in Mahabad and government forces, West of Iran.

In January 2008, a Law faculty student; Ebrahim Lotfollahi, had been killed mysteriously while in custody of the Intelligence Ministry agents in Western Iran. In a postmortem, it was reported that Mr.Lotfollahi's skull had been crushed and his nose broken.

Six Bahá'í leaders arrested in Iran

Six Bahá'í leaders in Iran were arrested and taken to the notorious Evin prison yesterday in a sweep that is ominously similar to episodes in the 1980s when scores of Iranian Bahá'í leaders were summarily rounded up and killed. It seems the six are held in the notorious Evin 209 section and are undergoing interrogations.

The International Bahaii press agency announced that The six men and women, all members of the national-level group that helped see to the minimum needs of Bahá'ís in Iran, were in their homes Wednesday morning when government intelligence agents entered and spent up to five hours searching each home, before taking them away.

The seventh member of the national coordinating group was arrested in early March in Mashhad after being summoned by the Ministry of Intelligence office there on an ostensibly trivial matter.

Ms.Bani Dugal, the principal representative of the Bahá'í International Community to the United Nations. condemned the detention of the Bahaiis and has said that their only crime is practicing the Bahá'í Faith.

"Especially disturbing is how this latest sweep recalls the wholesale arrest or abduction of the members of two national Iranian Bahá'í governing councils in the early 1980s -- which led to the disappearance or execution of 17 individuals," she said.

"The early morning raids on the homes of these prominent Bahá'ís were well coordinated, and it is clear they represent a high-level effort to strike again at the Bahá'ís and to intimidate the Iranian Bahá'í community at large," said Ms. Dugal.

Arrested yesterday were: Mrs. Fariba Kamalabadi, Mr. Jamaloddin Khanjani, Mr. Afif Naeimi, Mr. Saeid Rezaie, Mr. Behrouz Tavakkoli, and Mr. Vahid Tizfahm. All live in Tehran. Mrs. Kamalabadi, Mr. Khanjani, and Mr. Tavakkoli have been previously arrested and then released after periods ranging from five days to four months.

Arrested in Mashhad on 5 March 2008 was Mrs. Mahvash Sabet, who also resides in Tehran. Mrs. Sabet was summoned to Mashhad by the Ministry of Intelligence, ostensibly on the grounds that she was required to answer questions related to the burial of an individual in the Bahá'í cemetery in that city.

On 21 August 1980, all nine members of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Iran were abducted and disappeared without a trace. It is certain that they were killed.

The National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Iran was reconstituted soon after that but was again ravaged by the execution of eight of its members on 27 December 1981.

The International Bahaii press agency announced that a number of members of local Bahá'í governing councils, known as local Spiritual Assemblies, were also arrested and executed in the early 1980s, before an international outcry forced the government to slow its execution of Bahá'ís. Since 1979, more than 200 Bahá'ís have been killed or executed in Iran, although none have been executed since 1998.

In 1983, the government outlawed all formal Bahá'í administrative institutions and the Iranian Bahá'í community responded by disbanding its National Spiritual Assembly, which is an elected governing council, along with some 400 local level elected governing councils. Bahá'ís throughout Iran also suspended nearly all of their regular organizational activity.

Escalating mistreatment of political prisoners

14 May , Rajaii shahr prison near Karaj: Reports coming from political prisoners in that prison suggest that , Ali Heydarian, affiliated with a dissident Kurdish group has been fatally wounded by security guards of the prison.

The 30^th branch of the so called revolutionary court has in an arbitrary court ruling charged Mr. Heydarian of co-operating with the Kurdish labor party (PKK).

He was refrained from using the prison clinic, but after a protest displayed by other prisoners insisting on his devastating physical condition, he was moved to the local health office of the prison and looked at.

Prior to this, there were reports of abuse committed by one official of RajaiiShahr prison called "Torabi", who had harassed, threatened and insulted Mr.Heydarian and Farzad Kamangar. Both of which have been sentenced to Death by the so called revolutionary court.

It must be highlighted that, political prisoners are intentionally being kept and mixed with criminals in Rajaii Shahr, in order to crush their resistance.

Dangerous criminals are used as proxies by prison officials to carry out certain missions in the wards. They are mostly used to harass, beat-up and threaten political prisoners.

Prior to this, a number of prisoners had revealed in a letter smuggled out of prison, that they fear their death and have no security in RajaiiShahr prison of Karaj.

Saiid Shah Ghale who is affiliated with the People's Mojahedin organization of Iran (PMOI) has been transferred to a prison in Southern Iran.

Prior to this, two other political prisoners with similar background, Hashem Shahinnia and Amirkhizi have been transferred to BandarAbas and GoharDasht (RajaiiShahr) prisons.

Political prisoners believe that transferring prisoners to specific locations such as RajaiiShahr or the Southern provincial prisons, is a tactic used by the Intelligence Ministry to maximize pressure on the mentioned prisoners.

A critic and writer detained in 209

Reports suggest that, Ahmad Daneshpazir, a government critic and writer, who was arrested on 11 February at his house, has been detained in the notorious 209 section of Evin prison.

He was allowed only one visit with his family, in which he informed them that his interrogation had been finished and his case had been conveyed to the so called court.

His charges are not clear, but it seems that they may be related to several articles written under a fictitious name "Alef Bigharar" and printed on his behalf.

Following Mr.Daneshpazir's arrest, Intelligent Ministry agents also arrested his son Damoon Daneshpazir, and transferred him to solitary confinement of 209 sections. Damoon bailed out after 8 days of solitary confinement. The so called court had charged him with propagating against the State.